Market may drive Reserve Bank 'back to basics'
Central banks are often unpopular, but they hold the line
Chris Stals, the man at the centre of South Africa's deepest political and economic crisis in modern history, has warned of the "invisible hand" that could force an errant government back to basic economic market principles. Stals steered the country's monetary policy through stifling exchange controls and crippling economic sanctions and ushered the Reserve Bank through the dying years of apartheid and into the dawn of a democratic South Africa. As the Reserve Bank celebrates its 96th year, having opened its doors at the end of June 1921, the oldest central bank in Africa faces rising political pressure from a very fractured governing party. It also faces an economy in its second recession in less than a decade and foreign currency bonds downgraded to junk status. South Africa has experienced similar volatility in exchange-rate levels and confidence since President Jacob Zuma's abrupt firing of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015. The political tensions of recent...
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