Since then, the situation eased again to an average daily shortage of only about R5 billion in October 1997. Interest rates obviously followed these trends and increased quite sharply during the course of 1996 but then declined again in 1997.
The rate on three months bankers’ acceptances for example reached a peak of almost 17 per cent at the end of November 1996, before declining to 14.9 per cent at the end of October 1997.