##virus outbreak and allow time for an assessment of the crisis impact and financing needs for each country. page 10 of 11 create fiscal space for countries to increase their social, health and economic spending in response to the crisis. the suspension, and the resumption of repayments, will be over a period of three years, with a one - year grace period. some see benefits associated with the dssi, while others have indicated that an application for dssi participation might send a negative signal about countries ’ creditworthiness. 19 the three major credit rating agencies have indicated that private sector participation on g20 - comparable terms could have negative rating implications for the participants ( both the recipients and the providers of the relief ). more recently, moody ’ s placed four african countries on review for a downgrade for their participation in the dssi, stating that this raised the risk of losses for investors in the countries ’ bonds. this presents a dilemma. how can we ensure that debt - service relief does not lead to sovereign downgrades and thus does not compromise the attainment of debt sustainability over the medium term? this is an issue that is receiving increasing attention on the g20 agenda. conclusion in closing, i would like to reiterate that public debt has an important role to play in financing development, particularly in augmenting government budgets. however, it should be clear that debt is not a replacement for domestic revenue mobilisation. meanwhile, debt levels must remain sustainable so as not to undermine market confidence. to ensure that debt plays a meaningful role, it must be utilised for revenuegenerating activities that increase the productive capacity of the economy. i ’ m looking forward to hearing some of the novel ideas that will be shared in the next session on how we can tackle the debt - related challenges confronting the continent. thank you. 19 world bank. undated. debt service suspension initiative : q & as. world bank. https : / / www. worldbank. org / en / topic / debt / brief / debt - service - suspension - initiative - qas page 11 of 11

price stability. stated in the words of section 224 ( 1 ) of the constitution of the republic of south african, 1996, “ the primary object of the south african reserve bank is to protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the republic ”. and south africa has had experience of most alternatives – including the gold standard, the gold - dollar standard, monetary aggregates and an eclectic approach. to use the intemperate language of the younger generation : been there, done that ; got the t - shirt. as has been stated above, it is possible to pursue price stability using alternative approaches : and, many have been tried. as has been observed elsewhere in this regard, “ take away inflation targeting and we will still have monetary policy, we will still have the same instruments of monetary policy, and the bank will still have a constitutional mandate to maintain low inflation ” 10, in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the republic. 6. conclusion in conclusion, permit me to emphasise the following points : – the proposition stated in the address, to which i have made reference, that our economic system will work best when economic agents can proceed with full confidence that the purchasing power of money will be protected remains central to the role that has to be assigned to monetary policy. in south africa, this is a constitutional imperative. recent developments have thrown into sharp relief the importance of financial stability : and some broad guidelines have been suggested, in particular, by the g - 20 – of which south africa is a member – at the summit held in london early in april 2009. at that summit, the former financial stability forum was transformed into the financial stability board : and was enjoined, inter alia, to “ pursue the maintenance of financial stability, enhance the openness and transparency of the financial sector, implement international financial standards … and agree to undergo periodic peer reviews ” 11. the institutional arrangements for accomplishing this will, clearly, differ from country to country but will certainly not be onerous for south africa as a great deal has already been done in this regard. two imf / world bank financial sector assessment program studies have been concluded ; the first in 2000 and the second in 2008. supervision of banks has been undertaken consistently and the basle ii framework was implemented on the due date. a useful review in this regard may be found in charles freedman and douglas laxton ( 2009 ) “ why inflation targeting? ”, imf working paper