This was part of the Reserve Bank’s objective to reduce its net open position in foreign exchange to zero, in order to remove one of the perceived risk factors in the economy.
Any intervention in the foreign exchange market to support the exchange rate of the rand may well have made the downward pressure on the value of the rand worse, in view of this risk factor. The success of such intervention would in any case have probably also been thwarted by the general strength of the US dollar. 5.