M.Comm. / The overall objective of this study was to determine the appropriateness of Inflation Targeting to South Africa, or of South Africa's suitability for Inflation Targeting. For that reason, I shall produce information that will aid in the determination of whether the South African Reserve Bank has been correct in their adoption of this framework, and to propose an alternative, more all-encompassing option. The research design used in this study in terms of Tripodi, Fellin and Meyer's (1982:40) classification can be termed as a hybrid of the exploratory and the quantitative-descriptive designs. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the research paper. This chapter incorporates the rationale and importance of the study, its methodology, hypothesis, limitations, aims, and referencing method. It sets out clear aims and objectives for the thesis while providing an overview of the material. To facilitate the analysis of Inflation Targeting in South Africa it was vital to have a clear and accurate understanding of what Inflation Targeting is. The definition and an analysis of the definition are covered in Chapter 2. As other authors have detailed this aspect voluminously, it is just dealt with summarily in this section. Chapter 3 discusses the requirements for Inflation Targeting as set out by the authorities. These factors are primarily of a technical nature. While the information garnered for this section is invaluable, it is inadequate in isolation. Countries' individual circumstances play an important role, and need to be considered along with the purely technical requirements for Inflation Targeting. This chapter is important in the analysis as it provides an important yardstick for the analysis of the requirements in South Africa. In order to attain an enhanced grasp of Inflation Targeting and its potential impact and effects on South Africa, it is imperative to take lessons from other countries where the framework has been implemented. Chapter 4 analyses international experiences with Inflation Targeting, with the main aim of learning from the experience of developed and, more importantly, developing nations. The paper then moves into the most important section: that of South Africa. Once a full understanding of what Inflation Targeting involves is obtained, both theoretically and empirically, we are in a position to consider where South Africa fits in. South African monetary policy is evaluated briefly, while the technical requirements of Inflation Targeting are analysed in their South African context. Various problems are discussed with the applicability of the framework to South Africa. The later part of this section analyses technical and socio-political complicating factors, while a description is provided of a suggested alternative framework. The final chapter concludes that South Africa is, indeed, almost certainly "less than suitable" for Inflation Targeting and suggests that a more holistic framework of a "GEAR-type" nature is more likely to be appropriate to a country with the uniqueness of South Africa.

M.Com. (Financial Economics) / This study analyses the existence of a bank lending channel in South Africa and investigates the impact of the securitisation activity on the effectiveness of the bank lending channel during the period 2001–2010 using data from the South African banking sector. Structural Vector Auto Regression (SVAR) and Structural Vector Error Correction Model (SVECM) methods are used to interpret the impulse responses of bank lending to structural shocks (monetary policy) and to securitisation. The conclusion is that the bank lending channel is present and efficient in South Africa during the sample period with a lag and that securitisation acts as a shield against monetary impulses by constituting an additional source of funding for banks.

M.Comm. (Financial Economics) / This dissertation examines the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty, and economic growth using quarterly data for South Africa covering the period 1960-2012. Inflation uncertainty is estimated using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity modelling framework. Granger methods are employed in order to investigate the interaction between inflation, inflation uncertainty, and economic growth. The presence of structural change is investigated through dummy variables representing changes in monetary policy regime. No evidence is found of any significant structural change in either inflation or inflation uncertainty. Granger results indicate that inflation uncertainty has a negative impact on inflation, supporting Holland’s (1995) argument of stabilising central bank behaviour. Conversely, there is evidence that high inflation leads to elevated inflation uncertainty, in accordance with Friedman’s (1977) hypothesis. Inflation uncertainty does not have a significant impact on economic growth in South Africa. However, inflation does have an adverse effect on economic growth, whilst economic growth exerts a positive impact on the rate of inflation. Lastly, economic growth does not have any meaningful effect on inflation uncertainty.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Management Finance and Investments / There is plenty of research examining the relationship between surprise macroeconomic data and financial returns, however, in a South African context, such research is scarce. This paper adds to the event study body of knowledge by studying the effects of South African macroeconomic announcements on South African financial returns and juxtaposing that with the relationship of surprise macroeconomic announcements released in the United States with the same local financial instrument returns. In this study, the review period is 10 years starting the beginning of 2006 and ending at the end of 2015. Two strands of economic news are studied, monetary news and real activity news against an equity futures index as a proxy for the South African Stock market; the R186 government bond as a proxy for the South African bond market and the spot US dollar to South African rand exchange rate. The monetary announcements studied are the interest rate adjustments of the South African and United States Central Banks and the consumer price index. The real activity data studied are the unemployment rate; the retail sales and the gross domestic product releases. Many of the findings in this paper were in line with much of the literature where evidence shows that monetary policy has a significant effect on fixed income and forex rates. Stocks were also to be shown to be sensitive to both types of data. The regression specification used in this study shows that local equities are more sensitive to both types of news, although mainly to South African news. Only monetary surprises are shown to be sensitive to the bond market and surprises from both countries. Evidence is that the rand is only sensitive to the interest rate announcements released in the United States. / MT2017

Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2016. / The objective of this thesis is to investigate the recent historical dynamics of the four major nominal bilateral spot foreign exchange rates and the fifteen currency-basket nominal effective exchange rate of the South African rand (hereafter referred to as the rand). The thesis has been organised as three separate studies that add to the advancement of the knowledge of the characteristics and behaviour (causal effects) of the rand. The common thread that holds the individual chapters together is the study of the dynamics of the rand. In particular, the study establishes whether the apparent nonstationarity of the exchange rate is a product of unit root test misspecification (a failure to account for structural change), considers the connexions between the timing of the identified structural shifts and important economic and noneconomic events, and analyses rand volatility and the temporal effect of monetary policy surprises on both the spot foreign exchange market returns and volatility of the rand. In order to do this, low- and high-frequency data are employed. With regard to exchange rate modelling, the theoretical economic-exchange rate frameworks are approached both from the traditional macro-based view of exchange rate determination and a micro-based perspective. The various methodologies applied here tackle different aspects of the exchange rate dynamics. To preview the results, we find that adjusting for structural shifts in the unit root tests does not render any of the exchange rates stationary. However, the results show a remarkable fall in the estimates of volatility persistence when structural breaks are integrated into the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) framework. The empirical results also shed light on the impact of modelling exchange rates as long memory processes, the extent of asymmetric responses to ‘good news’ and ‘bad news’, the consistencies and contrasts in the five exchange rate series’ volatility dynamics, and the timing and likely triggers of volatility regime switching. Additionally, there are convincing links between the timing of structural changes and important economic (and noneconomic) events, and commonality in the structural breaks detected in the levels and volatility of the rand. We also find statistically and economically significant high-frequency exchange rate returns and volatility responses to domestic interest rate surprises. Furthermore, the rapid response of the rand to monetary policy surprises suggests a relatively high degree of market efficiency (from a mechanical perspective) in processing this information. Keywords: Exchange rate, expectations, long memory, monetary policy surprises, repo rate, structural breaks, volatility; unit root. JEL Code: C22, E52, E58, F31, F41, G14 and G15

The main objective of monetary policy is to protect the value of the currency, and in so doing, achieve the objectives of maximum economic growth, development, and the creation of employment opportunities. As from 1985, under the advice of the De Kock Commission, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), implemented the classical cash reserve system of monetary control. Under this system, the SARB was willing to refinance the money market shortage fully, automatically, and on certain predetermined terms, conditions and costs. However, since the new political dispensation in 1994, South Africa’s financial markets have become more globalized, liberalised, and integrated. Thus, the classical cash reserve system had lost its usefulness, and was no longer effective. As from March 1998, the SARB implemented the new repurchase system of monetary control. In implementing the repurchase system of monetary control, South Africa was adopting a more eclectic approach. This system is aimed at making monetary policy more effective and more flexible in a financial environment filled with complexities. This study finds that the repurchase system has thus far been successful in meeting its objectives. Interest rates are more flexible and sensitive to developments in the domestic and external environment, the signalling mechanism of the SARB has proved to be successful, accommodation and interest rates are closely related and the interbank market has become more developed. Therefore, the repurchase system appears to be more efficient than the previous system of monetary control in South Africa.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Inflation has many negative effects and for this reason the South African Reserve Bank, like central banks in most countries, is strongly opposed to inflation and uses its monetary policy to combat it. This action is necessary for continued economic growth, prosperity and a fair distribution of income and wealth. Low inflation and a stable financial environment are important prerequisites for the achievement of these objectives on a long-term basis. In order to combat inflation in South Africa it was announced in the Budget Speech on the 23 February 2000, that a policy of inflation targeting would be implemented in South Africa. The objective is to bring inflation within the target band of three to six percent by the year 2002. Inflation targeting has been successful in helping New Zealand, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and Spain achieve and maintain low rates of inflation. This does not mean, however, that inflation targeting has been implemented without incurring costs in lost output and employment, but there is no evidence that the adoption of inflation targets has produced harmful effects to the real economy over the long-term. Instead, the low inflation rates achieved in the inflation targeting countries have improved the prospects for sustainable longterm growth. However, inflation targeting is not appropriate for all countries. There are certain developing countries that do not meet the basic requirements for adopting inflation targeting. In this study the viability of implementing inflation targeting as a policy solution to combat inflation in South Africa is examined. In order to determine this, focus is placed on the key characteristics and features of inflation targeting. The reasons why countries have implemented inflation targeting are viewed and the prerequisites that must be met before inflation targeting can be implemented are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are also highlighted. Furthermore, focus is placed on how inflation targeting has been implemented in some of the advanced economies in order to determine whether it can be successfully implemented in developing countries, and if so, in which developing countries. Finally equipped with an .understanding of the theoretical aspects of inflation targeting and drawing from the lessons of the international experiences, focus is placed on how viable it is to implement inflation targeting in South Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wêreldwyd neem Sentrale Banke van ontwikkelende lande, aktiewe stappe in die bekamping van inflasie. Die Suid Afrikaanse Reserwe Bank, net soos ander Sentrale Banke is ook gekant teen inflasie en maak gebruik van hulle monetêre beleid vir die bekamping van inflasie. Bekamping van inflasie is van kardinale belang om voortgesette ekonomiese groei, welvaart en 'n regverdige verspreiding van inkomste en rykdom te verseker. Lae inflasie en 'n stabiele finansiële omgewing is belangrike voorvereistes om hierdie finansiële doelwitte in die langtermyn te bereik. Ten einde inflasie in Suid Afrika te bekamp, het die Minister van Finansies in sy begrotingsrede van 23 Februarie 2000, aangekondig dat Suid Afrika 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping gaan implementeer. Die doelwit van so beleid sou wees om inflasie binne 'n drie tot ses persent teikenband te beperk teen die jaar 2002. Inflasie bekamping was suksesvol in die bekamping van inflasie in lande soos New Zealand, Kanada, Israel, Die Verenigde Koningkryk, Swede, Australia en Spanje, waar lae inflasie koerse behaal is en gehandhaaf word. Alhoewel 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping met indirekte koste en 'n verlies in produksie en werksgeleenthede gepaard gaan, is daar geen bewyse dat die implementering van inflasie teikens 'n wesenlike effek op die ekonomie in die langtermyn het nie. Inteendeel, lae inflasie in die teikengroep lande het verseker dat voortdurende ekonomiese groei oor die langtermyn gehandhaaf kon word. 'n Beleid van inflasie bekamping is nie wenslik vir alle lande nie. Daar is verskeie ontwikkelende lande wat nie aan die basiese voorvereistes vir die implementering van 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping voldoen nie. In hierdie studie word die wenslikheid, al dan nie vir die implementering van 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping, as 'n beleidsoplossing in die bekamping van inflasie in Suid Afrika ondersoek. Ten einde dit te bereik word die fokus op die hoof karaktertrekke en einskappe van inflasie bekamping geplaas. Die redes waarom lande inflasie bekamping implementeer, asook die voorvereistes waaraan voldoen moet word, alvorens 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping geimplementeer kan word, word bespreek. Die voor- en nadele van hierdie werkswyse word ook uitgelig. Voorts word gefokus op die implementering van inflasie bekamping in ontwikkelde ekonomieë, om te bepaal of dit op die ekonomieë van ontwikkelende lande toegepas kan word, en indien wel, watter ontwikkelende lande? Toegerus met 'n begrip van die teoretiese aspekte van inflasie bekamping, gepaardgaande met die internasionale ervarings, word daar gefokus op die wenslikheid, vir die implementering van 'n beleid van inflasie bekamping in Suid Afrika.

A stable money demand function plays a vital role in the analysis of macroeconomics, especially in the planning and implementation of monetary policy. With the use of cointegration and error correction model estimates, this study examines the existence of a stable long-run relationship between real money demand (RM2) and its explanatory variables, in South Africa, for the period 1990-2007. The explanatory variables this study uses are selected on the basis of different monetary theories, including the Keynesian, Classical and Friedman‟s modern quantity theory of money. Based on these theories, the explanatory variables this thesis uses are real income, an interest rate, the inflation rate and the exchange rate. All variables have the correct signs, as expected from economic theory, except the inflation rate. Thus real income and inflation have positive coefficients, while the interest rate and exchange rate coefficients are negative. The results from unit root tests suggest that real income, interest rate and the inflation rate are found to be stationary, while RM2 and the exchange rate are non-stationary. Results from the Engle-Granger test suggest that RM2 and its all explanatory variables are cointegrated. Hence, we find a long-run equilibrium relationship between the real quantity of money demanded and four broadly defined macroeconomic components: real income, an interest rate, the inflation rate and the exchange rate in South Africa. Overall, the study finds that the coefficient of the equilibrium error term is negative, as expected, and significantly different from zero, implying that 0.20 of the discrepancy between money demand and its explanatory variables is eliminated in the following quarter. This evidence suggests that the speed of adjustment for money demand implies the money market in South Africa needs about four quarters to re-adjust to equilibrium. This observation agrees with the public statements of the South African Reserve Bank. Whether this will hold after November 2009 is the obvious subject of future research. / Thesis (M.Comm.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

M. Com. (Financial Economics) / The success of a monetary policy framework depends mostly on whether economic agents, especially the financial market participants, understand monetary policy decisions and are able to predict them in advance. Academics and practitioners agree that a successful Central Bank should be “boring” such that surprises about monetary policy should not arise in the announcements and the actions of the Bank, but rather in the macroeconomic developments. Thus policies that enhance clarity, transparency and communication between a Central Bank and the market can contribute to strengthening monetary policy predictability and improve the effectiveness of monetary policy itself. This dissertation assesses the predictability of the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) interest rate decisions since the adoption of the inflation targeting monetary policy framework in February 2000. Firstly, in order to evaluate predictability, money market forward rates are used to test whether the financial market is able to forecast the future level of policy rates, using the unbiased forward rate hypothesis. Then, using an event study methodology, changes in the money market forward rates following a monetary policy announcement are used to test whether the financial market participants were surprised by the SARB’s monetary policy decisions. The results of the unbiased forward rate hypothesis (UFRH) and the event study analysis indicate that, at least in the short term, specifically on a one-month-forward period, financial market participants have been able to predict the SARB’s monetary policy decisions with a high degree of accuracy. Moreover, the results of the event study analysis show that the South African financial market is at least semi-strong efficient, in the sense that monetary policy decisions are quickly incorporated in the market interest rates following the announcements. The event study analysis also provided some evidence that volatility in financial markets at the time of interest rate decisions has been declining over time.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the FACULTY OF COMMERCE LAW AND MANAGEMENT SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS SCIENCES at the UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND / The design and implementation of the monetary policy in South Africa has been based on the idea of a trade-off between inflation and output growth. However, there is no consensus among empirical investigations on the existence of Phillips curve in the present times. While the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has instrument independence, it does not have goal independence, which implies that there is coordination between the monetary policy and other macroeconomic policies. Thus, if the SARB objectives are in line with the other policy objectives, there should be a relationship between monetary variables and real variables. This therefore shows that in the long-run, monetary policy cannot single-handedly bring about both sustained economic growth and employment creation (SARB, 2014). Thus this study explored inflation dynamics in South Africa by using the Hybrid new Keynesian Phillips curve (HNKPC) and the augmented Gordon’s models. The study firstly estimated the Hybrid new Keynesian Phillips curve model with a view to determine whether Phillips curve exists and ascertain whether the backward-looking or forward-looking components drive inflation dynamics in South Africa using OLS and GMM estimation techniques. The results show that the Phillips curve does not exist in South Africa using various measures of demand-side variable. These findings are robust across estimation methodologies as well as different measurements of inflation expectations and data frequency. While the findings indicated that economic agents in South Africa are both rational and adaptive in predicting inflation, the results clearly showed the dominance of forward looking component over the backward looking element in driving inflation. Secondly, given the focus of the South African monetary authority in maintaining stable inflation rates and the fact that monetary policy need to go hand-in-hand with other policies in order to ensure stable inflation and economic growth (Gruen, Pagan and Thompson, 1999), this study considered the expanded Gordon’s model with a particular focus on how fiscal policy determines the inflation process in South Africa. The purpose of the Gordon’s chapter is to verify the existence or non-existence of Phillips curve in an expanded model, within the context of an augmented “triangle” model while including the monetarist and fiscal side variables, thereby checking whether the PC relationship of recent studies is robust to model specification. Thus, the augmented Gordon’s model was estimated using a holistic approach of including the fiscalist, monetarist and the structuralist schools of thought, using the Vector autoregressive (VAR), vector error correction model (VECM) and innovation accounting techniques. The results confirm the non-existence of PC whereby output growth maintained a negative relationship with inflation rate, signifying no trade-off despite the expanded specification, while the results from output-gap model are inconclusive. Further results showed that the demand-side, fiscal factors and some of the structural variables contribute more to the inflation dynamics in South Africa. Thus the changes in inflation rate are as a result of changes in output growth, government deficit, electricity price and exchange rate. The results confirmed that the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level (FTPL) applies to the South African economy, whereby not only monetary policies should be considered in controlling inflation, but also fiscal policies. On the other hand, the importance of the determinants of inflation rate is not sufficient in observing the inflation dynamics in South Africa; therefore, this study concluded by investigating the level at which inflation becomes detrimental to output growth. In the context of the low levels of economic growth and high levels of unemployment in South Africa, the study analysed the output growth implications of the inflation targeting monetary policy of the South African Reserve Bank that targets an inflation band between three and six percent. Using the Threshold Autoregressive (TAR) and the Sample Splitting Threshold Regression (SSTR) techniques, this study investigated the nonlinear inflation-growth nexus in South Africa with the purpose of identifying the inflation rate band that optimize output growth. The results showed that South Africa is able to accommodate a higher level of inflation beyond the current inflation target band by increasing the band to between seven and nine percent in order to enhance output growth. Our findings support the argument of studies that indicate that moderately higher inflation rate will not be harmful to the economy. / MT2017