of regional gdp. international monetary fund, “ where are we headed? perspectives on potential output ”, world economic outlook, washington dc : international monetary fund, april 2015. j e tyson, sub - saharan africa international sovereign bonds : investor and issuer perspectives, overseas development institute, january 2015, available at http : / / www. odi. org / sites / odi. org. uk / files / odi - assets / publications - opinion - files / 9435. pdf. bis central bankers ’ speeches furthermore, development in african capital markets has not been limited to sovereign bonds. global flows into the region ’ s equity markets, while still very small compared to other regions, nonetheless grew in importance relative to the size of the recipient economies. the flow of capital into africa is critical to its ongoing development. access to capital has been greatly enhanced and a more competitively priced supply is currently offered, moving away from a reliance on official - sector financing. however, to ensure that benefits to borrowers are maximised, it is important that financing be transparent and that risk be fairly priced. furthermore, where lending is overly risk - averse, the development of corporate bond, equity or even venture capital markets can facilitate the expansion of a private, mediumsized business sector. finally, over time, as financial markets grow across the continent, one can equally expect to see increased cross - border portfolio and direct investment flows within sub - saharan africa, helping to facilitate regional economic and financial integration. these gains in hand, we need to be mindful of the risks associated with external portfolio financing. a tightening of financial conditions in the developed world can easily prompt international fund managers to reduce their exposure to frontier markets. what is then a small portfolio adjustment for a large us - or europe - based fund, however, can result in significant price action on a small and relatively illiquid sovereign debt market. rising foreigncurrency external liabilities equally expose a sovereign ’ s balance sheet to currency depreciation, limiting the benefits i described earlier of foreign - exchange adjustment as a “ shock absorber ”. in that respect, an increased focus on developing local - currency bond markets and on equity financing may present a solution to the risk of excessive foreign - currency leveraging. in south africa, the existence of a large and liquid domestic government bond market, with long - maturity instruments, has limited the rise in foreign currency - denominated debt, even as our country has experienced large current - account deficits.

in generating financial resources for institutions, fundraising is not their raison d ’ etre. we can also think of “ fun ” raising, i. e. entertaining and exciting ways of building alumni relationships. various projects, too numerous to mention, can be undertaken. also, benefits of staying connected to one ’ s alma mater, other alumni and peers are immeasurable. networking is developed through strong alumni associations. this includes circulating information on internship, employment and other opportunities available in the various areas of enterprise alumni are engaged in. to my mind the benefits seem to outweigh the costs. your effort as we gather here tonight dovetails with one of the government ’ s key programmes. as you may be aware, the government has set itself the goals of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014. to meet these challenges, the government seeks an annual average growth rate of 4, 5 per cent or higher between 2005 and 2009, and an average growth rate of at least 6 per cent between 2010 and 2014. there are strong indications that the south african economy has reached a higher growth path. the growth rate averaged 3 per cent per annum between 1994 and 2003 as compared to 1 per cent during the decade preceding the country ’ s advent to democracy. however, growth rates in 2004 and 2005 have averaged 4, 5 per cent and 4, 9 per cent respectively. while growth is expected to decelerate somewhat this year, it is still expected to exceed 4 per cent. there is thus little doubt that the sustained application of prudent macroeconomic policies is bearing fruits. monetary policy has played its part by contributing to a low inflationary environment - inflation has been within the target range of 3 - 6 per cent for cpix for the past 34 months - which in turn has been supportive of economic growth. the maintenance of price stability, however, is not without its challenges. the globalisation of the south african economy is well documented. there is no escaping the impact of global influences on the sa economy. the recent volatility in our financial markets following the increased risk aversion of global investors towards emerging countries is an example in this regard. in addition, the recent successive monthly increases in the price of petrol as a result of the sustained increase in international oil prices bear further testimony to the sensitivity of the south african economy to global developments. as is the case internationally, the high oil price, if sustained, poses a significant threat to inflation and economic growth in south africa. there are domestically generated