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.
Concluding remarks  As could be expected, the depreciation of the rand and the substantial rise in energy and food prices affected price increases in South Africa. For example, the year-on-year increase in the CPIX accelerated from 6.5% in October 1999 to 8.2% in August 2000.