/ 1 July 1999

MARCUS TO MAKE HISTORY

HISTORY will be made on Thursday when Gill Marcus takes over as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank. Marcus will be the first woman in the country to occupy such a post within the bank. She succeeds Chris de Swardt who retired on Wednesday. She is reluctant to comment on any future policy shifts: “In the broad sense, I will be looking at what happens in the world’s financial architecture and, within that, the changing nature of commerce and how that affects developing countries like South Africa. It is very premature to talk about policy changes. We will just be looking at what are the implications of the changing nature of business.” Senior economist Tony Twine said Thursday he expected Marcus’ tenure as one of three deputy governors at the Reserve Bank to be stable.