account deficit, which is equal to the foreign savings that come into south africa, is close to 4 % of gdp. almost all our peer countries borrow less. if we try to cut rates too far, despite the country risk, investors won ’ t have enough reason to be in south africa. they would be better off investing in less risky places. so we need to become less risky, to enjoy more of the benefits of low global rates. key public - sector drivers of inflation, like the public sector wage bill and administered prices, could also help ease inflation. this is where fiscal and monetary policies need to be in sync. finally, and more fundamentally, we need to appreciate the limits on what any monetary toolbox can do for growth. let me give you the example of italy. italy is part of the euro zone. euro area inflation has been very low, and the european central bank has made a major effort to push it back up again, with policies including negative interest rates and quantitative easing. but italy has a large debt burden. it has problems of political and fiscal policy uncertainty. over the past five years, italy has had average growth of less than 1 %. germany, with the exact same monetary policy, has had average growth closer to 2 %. spain, which, like italy, was a major victim of the 2011 - 2012 euro crisis, has averaged nearly 3 %. 7 clearly, the tailwind of easy monetary policy was not enough to overcome the headwinds of italy ’ s other challenges. of course, south africa is a different country. but what you should take away from this is that there is much more to growth than monetary policy, and it is still possible to stagnate with the loosest monetary policy imaginable. the fact of the matter is, south africa has not made itself a high - growth country. we do not save enough to fund adequate levels of investment. we invest less than 20 % of gdp ; to sustain strong growth, we should have investment of at least 25 % of gdp. we have focused on domestic the federal reserve ’ s targeted measure of inflation. 7 the exact averages are 1. 7 % for germany, 0. 9 % for italy, and 2. 9 % for spain, for the period 2015 - 2019. the data are drawn from the imf world economic outlook database. 6 this number refers to the change in the private consumption expenditure deflator, consumption as a growth driver, on the grounds that it

start - ups. specifically, alternative finance instruments, such as venture capital ( or vcs ) and peer - to - peer lending, can help fill the funding gap for early stage and growth stage firms, who typically possess risk profiles less suited for bank - based debt financing. alternative finance instruments can also help crowd - in additional capital from other large private and public capital providers, enabling firms to support their subsequent stages of growth, as well as foster a greater culture of innovation, dynamism, and entrepreneurship in the malaysian economy. at present, the domestic alternative finance industry is still nascent. according to our estimates, 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches malaysia ’ s alternative finance market size constitutes only 0. 2 % of gdp, which is small when compared to developed and peer markets. realising the need to accelerate growth of this area, we have identified several strategies to develop alternative finance under the financial sector blueprint 2022 – 2026. notably, this includes the formation of a dedicated platform with the securities commission and other stakeholders to streamline measures for development of the national alternative finance ecosystem. additionally, initiatives such as the deployment of dana penjana under penjana kapital, a 1 - to - 1 matching program for funds raised by venture capitals, are important public private partnerships utilising alternative finance to spur early - stage innovation. the investee companies here today, involved in a variety of innovative fields across finance, are testament to this. beyond regulator or government - led efforts, capital market intermediaries – such as asset managers and large institutional investors – can also play a critical role in mobilising capital more actively to firms, especially smes and start - ups. for now, a large proportion of venture capitalbacked deals in malaysia remains facilitated by the public sector entities. there is considerable room to increase private sector involvement here. another potential avenue for unlocking investor funds could be through greater corporate venture capital ( cvc ) participation in vc funding activities. by investing in the vc firm, as opposed to the start - up itself, the technical know - how in start - up investing could be built up over time, without the instance of crowding - out vcs through direct competition in deal flow. closing let me conclude. the digital era is already upon us. in the next few years we will see more advancements and some of this, are unknown to us today. some of you as industry entrepreneurs have a better vision on this. the late henry ford once