It was well understood that this process would not be painless, that the depreciation of the currency, the drainage of liquidity and the rising interest rates would all demand costs and sacrifices that would not be popular, and that the monetary authorities would be blamed by some ill-disposed observers for the dilemma.
Any country that had established a good economic performance in one year on the basis of net capital inflow of R20 billion, and is then in the next year forced to perform on a net inflow of only R4 billion, is bound to go through some painful adjustment. South Africa was no exception. 4.