1. Introduction
Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to address you at your 3rd Annual HSBC Africa Conference on monetary policy as we, and the rest of the world, grapple with the devastating health and economic effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
I will start by briefly recapping how and why the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) responded at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, and move on to discuss what challenges we may face in the next two years, or to stretch it a bit and say what a possible postCOVID world means for the SARB and monetary policy, in particular.
I use the word 'possible' because it may be ambitious or premature to talk about a post-COVID world at this stage, notwithstanding some encouraging recent successes in vaccine trials.