OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | day 4.00pm.
THE stability of South Africa’s financial system is to be assessed by a team from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Business Day newspaper on Friday quoted Reserve Bank deputy governor Gill Marcus as saying South Africa had volunteered to be part of a pilot project, which would ensure the country’s financial systems are up to best international practise. Canada, Columbia and Lebanon are also participating in the project.
The newspaper reported IMF official Jose Fajgenbaum as saying the assessment is a means of ensuring foreign investors that the country’s financial systems are up to scratch.
The project has been set up in the wake of last year’s emerging market crisis, and Marcus said it would provide a chance for South Africa to establish better ways of managing risk.
Fajgenbaum, who is a senior adviser in the IMF’s Africa department said he expected the financial assessment to go before the IMF’s board in late December.
He has praised the work being done by the Reserve Bank, but expressed concern about South Africa’s low growth and high unemployment.
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