The Bank has continued to buy foreign exchange as part of its strategy to increase the level of foreign exchange reserves. Despite significant foreign currency purchases at times, the rand has remained at elevated levels on a trade-weighted basis, but the cost of sterilisation has been significant, given the wide interest rate differential.
Following the economic difficulties deriving from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, the risk of an abrupt end to this process arose. Nonetheless, EMEs displayed resilience to this shock, and even though their output growth decelerated in 2009, the outcome was far better than the outright contraction observed in the AEs.