on reshaping the sarb's management, in the hope that the upper echelons of the central bank would be 50 % black by 2005. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches this would be easier said than done and tito publicly decried the institution's struggle to retain black talent. but his work ultimately did pay off. by the end of his second term, 60 % of sarb employees were black. today this stands at over 84 % and 63 % of the sarb's senior leadership is black and female. tito's time at the sarb was very much an extension of his broader ambition for south africa's economy – a sense of purpose that was nurtured over many years and which he poured into his policy work. on a number of occasions i have spoken of the loss of tito's beautiful policy brain. he has left a deep void in our personal lives, and the country as a whole. but we must take comfort in the fact that his legacy is felt across so many aspects of our economy, and more recently, in the kitchen. at the sarb, tito fought fiercely to keep inflation from ravaging workers'wages and the spending power of pensioners and the unemployed. he did so by championing inflation targeting, which the sarb adopted a year into his tenure as governor. this policy has ensured that double - digit inflation prints are relegated to history. early in his first term, tito also negotiated a memorandum of understanding ( mou ) between the sarb and national treasury, then led by trevor manuel as finance minister. this mou entrenched the coordination of macroeconomic policy and has remained in place to this day – outlasting the tenures of these two titans of policy. tito's work as governor extended beyond south africa's borders. when he assumed the role, he, like other central bankers at the time, was concerned about the effects of globalisation, which had left emerging markets vulnerable to financial turmoil. 2 to maximise the benefits of building multilateral institutions, tito sought to create greater economic integration within the south african development community ( sadc ) and to insulate the region's central banks against political interference. he was a staunch proponent of central bank independence, even before it was written into south africa's constitution. he created greater central bank transparency and accountability, establishing the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) and the monetary policy forums to enhance public engagement and accountability.

the united states ( us ), employment levels. but it is highly unlikely that emerging market economies will decide to change their policy frameworks. many had reverted to much higher inflation even before the pandemic eased, while others, like south africa, are now caught up in broader inflation. in that more normal context, the standard monetary policy approaches make as much of a positive impact on economic growth and jobs as they can. however, the real solutions to faster growth and job creation lie in other policy domains. why the difference between advanced and emerging economies? why might the rules governing objectives differ somewhat? the answer has to do with pure economic theory, actual experience, and with the different economic conditions − cyclical and structural − faced by different central banks. to begin, it should be clear that for quite some time, essentially since the early 2000s, central banks of advanced economies have faced stubbornly low inflation, despite low interest rates, for a range of structural reasons related primarily to demographics and high savings. so, when they took an accommodative stance to raise growth and employment levels during the great moderation of the 2000s and the period into the pandemic, inflation still remained modest. as the pandemic hit, because inflation remained low, there was as yet no contradiction between the inflation targets and boosting growth. policy expansion could help get people who had dropped out of the labour market back in. job creation was efficient. expansionary stances worked well with strategies that lowered the cost to firms of retaining people in jobs. in south africa ’ s case, the pandemic also facilitated expansionary policy, precisely because inflation had trended lower from 2017. this allowed us to lower policy rates sharply in 2020 to confront the shorter - term damage done to the economy. the repurchase ( repo ) rate averaged 6. 7 % between 2017 and early 2020, before dropping to 3. 5 % in march / april of that year. a deeper dive into jobs and growth targets as in advanced economies, our expansion did little to immediately bring back jobs. many were lost as lockdowns were extended, while some new ones were created in various services linked to the shift in consumption patterns. expansion did support the recovery of both pre - pandemic spending patterns and many of the jobs associated with them. of course, there is also much further to go, as some sectors remain constrained. the open question is whether sustained expansion in an environment of high debt levels and rising