dr. stals assesses the new opportunities for south african investors in an environment of no exchange controls address by the governor of the south african reserve bank, dr. c. stals, at a business breakfast forum hosted by marriott merchant bank and deloitte & touche in durban on 17 / 3 / 97. 1. background the announcement on the further relaxation of exchange controls by the minister of finance, mr. trevor manuel, on wednesday last week received as much, if not more, attention as his announcements on fiscal policy for the 1997 / 98 fiscal year. for more than 35 years, south african residents were not permitted, at least within the rules of the law, to make investments outside of the country without prior approval from the exchange control authorities. approval was seldom given, particularly not before 1994 when the besieged south african economy had to contend with international sanctions, boycotts and disinvestment campaigns. following upon the political and social reforms in the country and the withdrawal of punitive international economic actions, the reserve bank and the department of finance started with a gradual phasing out of the exchange controls. a major constraint remained an acute shortage of foreign exchange reserves which were completely depleted by the time the government of national unity came into power in april 1994. looking back over the past three years, good progress has nevertheless been made with the gradual phasing - out of the exchange controls. as a first priority, all restrictions on non - residents to repatriate their investment funds from south africa were removed. various ways and means were introduced to enable south african corporates to acquire foreign investments in branches or subsidiaries controlled by them. they were, for example, allowed to use the proceeds of foreign equity or convertible debenture issues to finance foreign investments. the reserve bank has approved a cumulative amount of more than r18 billion for this purpose. in june 1995, a scheme was introduced to enable south african insurers and pension and mutual funds to diversify part of their existing asset portfolios into foreign currency denominated investments. approval has been given for more than r30 billion of asset swap transactions in terms of which institutional investors could exchange south african assets for foreign assets in this process. according to information available to the reserve bank, more than r17 billion of these transactions have been executed. a number of internal arrangements were introduced to reduce the administrative burden of exchange controls, for example to grant the authorised dealers in foreign exchange more scope for discretionary decisions on exchange control applications

for non - financial reasons, and this may still be so in future. the more rational investor, however, may think twice before making an investment in a foreign currency, in a foreign country and perhaps also in the shares of a foreign company. in considering such a possibility, a few important macroeconomic realities will have to be taken into account. the first is that markets, the more free they become and the more efficient they function, also work more effectively as a catalyst for equalisation. for example, if the average rate of inflation in south africa over time is 10 per cent per annum and the average rate of inflation in the rest of the world is 3 per cent, nominal interest rates in south africa will on average be about 7 per cent above the level of nominal interest rates in other countries. differences in real rates of interest will reflect differences in the risk factor attached to investment in different countries. in the same example, the exchange rate of the south african rand will depreciate over time by about 7 per cent per annum. the depreciation in the exchange rate will therefore make sure that the converted rand value of a foreign investment will keep up with the value of a similar south african investment, adjusted for inflation. there are therefore no special gains to be made from the investment in a foreign currency. thirdly, taxation in south africa will be levied on income earned on foreign investments on the same basis as income earned in south africa. ( the taxation on “ passive income ” earned in foreign countries as referred to by the minister in his budget speech. ) foreign investments will, however, hold new risk exposures for south african investors, particularly in an environment of volatile international exchange rates. the timing of the transfer of an investment into a foreign currency can be detrimental. a south african investor who may have transferred his savings into a sterling investment earlier this year when the exchange rate between the rand and the pound was r8. 00 = £1. 00 could have lost 10 per cent of his investment within a very short period of time. last friday the exchange rate was back to r7. 10 = £1. 00. this brings into any foreign investment a new speculative element that does not exist in the local investment market. finally, very few private individuals in south africa have the knowledge and the expertise to manage foreign investment portfolios, and to assess the alien risk exposures that are connected to such investments. we should not, just because of sentimental reasons, make use of a new freedom