funds - supplying operation to support financial institutions in disaster areas. the list of fund - provisioning measures eligible for each category, or " box, " will be changed at the mpms as necessary depending on the situation. this scheme enables the effects of monetary easing to further permeate the economy by promoting financial institutions'lending under a negative interest rate. when short - and long - term interest rates are lowered as an additional easing measure, the applied interest rates on a portion of financial institutions'current account balances will be raised through this scheme and their lending thereby will be promoted further. in this way, the scheme will play a complementary role for the additional easing effects. in addition, the latest policy actions include technical adjustments to the method to calculate the portion of financial institutions'current account balances at the bank to which a negative interest rate is applied. i will not go into details today, but these adjustments also will contribute to further smooth conduct of the negative interest rate policy and to enhancing the effectiveness of the additional easing measure of cutting short - term interest rates. conduct of yield curve control the second policy action is with regard to the conduct of yield curve control. the bank made clear at the latest mpm that the range of fluctuations in long - term interest rates, or 10 - year jgb yields, will be between around plus and minus 0. 25 percent from the target level, which is set at " around zero percent. " the effects of yield curve control on the functioning of the jgb market are, in a sense, an inevitable consequence of maintaining interest rates stably at extremely low levels. that said, in order to conduct yield curve control sustainably, it is important to strike a balance between maintaining market functioning and appropriately controlling interest rates. in fact, the examination made in the assessment reconfirmed that fluctuations within a certain range have positive effects on the functioning of the jgb market without impairing the effects of monetary easing. when the framework for continuous powerful monetary easing was strengthened in july 2018, the bank announced that it would allow long - term interest rates to move upward and downward in about double the range, which was previously between around plus and minus 0. 1 percent from the target level. thereafter, the range of fluctuations in long - term interest rates widened and the functioning of the jgb market improved. however, since then, there have been times when the range of actual fluctuations has become narrow. given these developments and the findings of the assessment, the bank

ian plenderleith : five big issues in the economic field speech by mr ian plenderleith, deputy governor of the south african reserve bank, to the actsa ( action for southern africa ) corporate and professional dinner, johannesburg, 2 june 2005. * * * visitors to south africa are encouraged to go on safari and see “ the big five ”. the big five are, indeed, awesome in the wild and a memorable sight. but i have always regarded the notion that visitors can see just the big five, and then go home feeling they have covered the ground, as distinctly sub - optimal marketing. any score card that leaves out, for example, the mute grace of the giraffe, or the sheer brute force of the hippopotamus, or - my personal favourite - the nimble elegance of the warthog, does not begin to do justice to the diversity of wildlife in south africa ; and if we also add a few of the rarer sights, like perhaps wild dogs and cheetah, we would encourage visitors to stay longer and add yet more to our tourist earnings. the big five are not, however, only to be found in the bush. in the economic field, too, we have for the past decade been determinedly and assiduously tracking a different sort of big five, representing the key elements we need to nurture to enable our economy to achieve higher and rising levels of sustainable growth in output and in employment and hence in living standards for all the people of south africa. i want tonight briefly to point out these economic big five to you and to suggest that, after years of carefully stalking the spoor, we are now on track and in sight of the big five and well placed to enjoy the continuing benefit of their company. what are these big five, in the economic field? first, the economy as a whole continues to demonstrate vigorous and sustained growth. we have in fact achieved continuous positive growth in output for the past 26 consecutive quarters - some six and half years. that is a remarkable track record of cumulative growth. more recently, we have seen growth accelerate, from 3 percent or just over in the past few years to 3. 7 percent last year and continuing to run close to that level on the first quarter gdp data released just this week. the economy appears to have moved up in the past two years onto a higher growth trajectory which, if it can be sustained, is extremely good news. secondly, there are good