Lesetja Kganyago: Sovereign debt from an African central bank perspective

Opening address by Mr Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at the fourth Annual Distributed Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 7 September 2020.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
10 September 2020

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

All protocols observed.

I would like to thank the International Development Law Unit at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria for inviting me to deliver the opening address at this fourth Annual Distributed Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference, or DebtCon.

DebtCon was launched at Georgetown in January 2016, and its mission is to engage scholars and practitioners across geographical, disciplinary and institutional boundaries to help solve sovereign debt problems. I think this is a very opportune time to bring together the brightest minds to consider the African debt conundrum.

Before I proceed, I should remind you that I am a central banker. Experience since the global financial crisis suggests that whenever central banks are called upon to discuss sovereign debt issues, countries are in real trouble. Today, I'll be making some remarks on the sovereign debt situation from an African central bank perspective.