The bank cannot disregard the exchange rate because the exchange rate can exercise considerable influence on developments in inflation.

Growth in real gross domestic product amounted to 4.5 percent in 2004, and preliminary anecdotal evidence suggests that this performance may have been exceeded somewhat in 2005.

All those reforms will need to be nurtured carefully and it is crucial that they be supported throughout by a stable and transparent macroeconomic policy framework.

Further structural reforms will be important prerequisites to unlocking the economic growth and development potential of South Africa.

The industry has had a caning over the exchange rate.

We need to be very cautious about large fluctuations in the exchange rate.