these efforts have gone a long way in bringing together policymakers and the people whose lives their decisions impact. his legacy lives on, and today we still meet south africans across the country to explain our decisions and account for the work we do as enshrined in the constitution. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches this is one of the lessons tito impressed on me : policy is about people. and when it comes to enacting policy, there is little room for errors - there is cause and effect. if you make the wrong policy decision, by the time you get an opportunity to reverse it, the cost may already have been massive. in the statement he delivered during his inauguration as governor back in 1999, tito assured the country that he and the sarb would not follow icarus by flying too close to the sun. it was a fitting metaphor for the time. south africa had entered the next phase of its democracy and there was a feeling that the optimism that characterised the previous years would need to be followed through with prudent governance. while he shared the ambition of his anc comrades of building an inclusive economy, tito understood that many victories in this regard would be won by the narrowest of margins. in the context of lean resources, there would always be trade - offs. this approach made him quite unpopular in certain circles, especially among those who believed he was toeing an old line. his predecessor, chris stals, had warned him that this was a hazard of the job before he hung up his hat, saying : if a governor becomes popular in his own country, it may be time to retire. 3 it is true that monetary policy is about discipline - about forcing the country to live within its means, as chris put it. and in some ways, tito had to be more hard - nosed than many would have wanted him to be. after all, by the time he arrived at the 32nd floor, the rand was in turmoil and borrowing costs were painfully high. tito had to be a rock in a storm - and, as a policymaker, he faced wilder tempests than most. another great test came when he was appointed finance minister. in this position he was confronted with the country's dire economic predicament, made worse by a decade of recklessness. to the dismay of many, he was unyielding in his application of fiscal prudence, adding to his unpopularity in some quarters. when he delivered his first budget speech as

relatively young population, strong health care system, low population density and the relatively well - balanced management of the outbreak, are all likely positive contributing factors. icelandic economy at a glance versus oecd countries in 2019 measures taken to slow the spread of the disease were relatively successful and the icelandic authorities did not need to impose exceedingly stringent and protracted restrictions, as was required in many other countries. as a result, the impact of the pandemic on households ’ willingness and opportunity to spend and on corporate operations was milder than in countries where stricter measures had to be adopted. thus, the impact of the pandemic on domestic demand was less pronounced. despite relatively successful public health measures, the large share of tourism services in iceland ’ s gdp made the economy quite vulnerable to the economic consequences of global restrictions on travel and tourism services. in 2019 tourism and tourism - related services amounted to about 8 % of iceland ’ s gdp, a proportion second only to that of portugal and spain in the oecd. reflecting the weight of tourism in exports, iceland ’ s exports contracted by 31 %, more than in any other oecd country, and service exports shrank by 54 % in the wake of restrictive measures taken by all major trading partners. other tourism - dependent countries such as greece, spain and portugal also suffered severe export shocks. the weight of tourism and the effects of covid on exports in 2020, economic activity in iceland contracted by 7. 2 %, compared to 4. 9 % on average in main trading partner countries. the difference may appear smaller than expected given the size of the shock to exports. as a small open economy, iceland imports a large share of consumer durables, investment goods and tourism services. therefore, a considerably larger share of shocks to aggregate demand tends to be absorbed by the external sector than in larger, more self - contained advanced economies. strong imports result in negative trade balance the smaller than expected effect of the pandemic on iceland ’ s economy can therefore be attributed to rather agile expenditure switching, helped by a 12 % depreciation of the krona relative to the trading partner currencies from end - february until early may 2020. local consumers and firms transferred their expenditures during the pandemic from imported consumer durables, investment goods and tourismrelated services to domestic services and housing. as in other countries, they also ramped up their savings. iceland ’ s imports contracted by 21 %, more than elsewhere in the oec