We did not raise interest rates. In 2014, inflation breached the target for much of the year. Over 2013 and 2014, the rand depreciated by over 40 percent. Notwithstanding the breach of the inflation target and the risks of an even longer breach posed by the exchange rate; we raised rates by a modest 75 basis points.
It was clear that we needed to show our patience with the price environment. We did so by introducing nonconditional forward guidance – there were clearly too many elements behind the low inflation to allow us to turn some into conditions – which we reiterated more recently, and in our view was correctly interpreted by the market.