speech by governor kganyago on the occasion of the announcement of the winners of the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) schools challenge 17 august 2018 programme director, honourable minister of basic education, ms angie motshekga, deputy governors, heads of department, guest speaker, aisha pandor, colleagues from the south african reserve bank and the department of basic education, parents, representatives from schools, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen i am honoured to be standing here this afternoon as we pay tribute to some of the most outstanding economics learners in the country. the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) schools challenge was launched as a pilot programme in 2012 by the south african reserve bank ( sarb ) in conjunction with the gauteng department of basic education ( dbe ). the challenge is a competition for grade 12 economics learners, which exposes them to how the mpc sets the repurchase ( repo ) rate. it also aims to increase the level of interest in economics as a subject of choice among high school learners, and to encourage learners to pursue a career in economics. the sarb has since expanded the challenge to other provinces, as follows : in 2014, to limpopo province ; in 2015, to the free state province ; in 2016, to mpumalanga province ; and in 2017, to the eastern cape, north west and northern cape provinces. today is a major milestone in the history of the mpc schools challenge. this is the first time that schools from all nine provinces have participated in the challenge. in july 2017, the minister of basic education, ms angie motshekga and i launched the national roll - out of this challenge at a media conference here at the sarb where it was announced that the kwazulu - natal and western cape provinces would be participating in the challenge from 2018, effectively opening the challenge to schools in all nine provinces for the first time. the number of participating schools has since risen from 70 ( seventy ) in 2012 to 813 ( eight hundred and thirteen ) in 2018 – impacting 3 212 ( three thousand two hundred and twelve ) learners. the sarb believes the competition will raise the level of understanding of monetary policy, and contribute directly and indirectly to broad public economic education. the students who participate in the mpc schools challenge will also have a better understanding of the role of the sarb. at the onset, we must commend our school finalists ( in alphabetical order ) : empucu

more specifically it depends directly on the sustainability of its development process. second, it should be borne in mind that the process of reduction of the fiscal deficit ( which had been pursued over past years but was interrupted in 2009 in the context of the financial crisis ) was resumed in 2010 and is an important step in the critical and wider process of reforming public finances. i have already referred to this process on other occasions, so today i will not go into further detail. i only insist that this process not only has an institutional and regulatory dimension but also it requires a multi - annual and binding programme that ensures the reduction of the public debt to gdp ratio, while setting a limit to the growth of public expenditure. the latter is crucial to restrain tax increases and to safeguard the attractiveness of the country as a destination for investments that support potential output and employment. third, there is a need to rebalance the development model, by creating favourable conditions for the expansion of the tradable goods sector ; for the growth of capital and labour productivity, as well as total factor productivity ; and for innovation as regards both production processes and technologies and products. it should be recalled that the growth and employment creation model of the past years is not sustainable : it relied on the expansion of public demand, reflected on the imbalance of public finances and on the expansion of private demand. in turn, the latter was fuelled by the favourable financing conditions enjoyed by households, mirrored in rising indebtedness and lower savings. the growth and employment creation model of the past years triggered an increasing indebtedness ratio, which would become unsustainable if it were not corrected. the portuguese economy must create employment in the tradable goods sector, in order to : absorb the employment that, due to the adjustment of domestic demand, the nontradable goods sector will not be able to retain ; and offset the reduction in the incorporation of labour per unit of output, which will result from a broad - based and imperative rise in productivity. bis central bankers ’ speeches the sustainability of the development model implies more far - reaching structural reforms, with priority to those that have an immediate impact on competitiveness, on available capacity and on the value added of the goods and services export sectors. i would like to emphasize that there are no mechanical and definite causalities in the growth of potential output. the future is shaped by the way resources are allocated between alternative uses, by the quality of public policies ( most notably, by their impact on incentives