Financial market developments in Africa: new challenges for central banks?

20 November 2007

A joint South African Reserve Bank-BIS meeting of Governors, Cape Town, 20 November 2007.

Governors met in November 2007 in Cape Town for a roundtable discussion on recent economic and financial developments in Africa. As Governor Tito Mboweni underlined, most countries on the African continent have experienced favourable macroeconomic developments in recent years. This has been clearly evident in the vastly improved economic growth and inflation trends in many countries. There is little doubt that the implementation of prudent macroeconomic policies has played an important role in these developments.

The financial sector plays a key role in the economic development of an economy. Failure to develop the financial sector can place severe constraints on growth prospects. The broadening and deepening of the financial system is needed to support high economic growth rates at sustainable levels. Currently, this issue is of particular relevance to policymaking in many African countries.

The proceedings of the meeting, published by the SARB are available on their website.

The previous meeting of Governors from Africa took place in March 2006 at the BIS and dealt with the subject "Central banks and the challenge of development".