Just as the seeds of a crisis are often sown in earlier boom times, strength can be forged during the tough times that follow a crisis. As we did in the early 1990s, bankers and regulators today have learned from the lessons of the crisis and are determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Having recorded a high rate of 5 per cent in the second quarter of 2002, real output growth in the South African economy slowed down progressively in the next four quarters to a mere ½ per cent in the second quarter of 2003. In the third quarter of 2003 the growth in production rose somewhat to an annualised rate of 1 per cent.