Vol.1 No.21, 11 December 2001

A SANE Response to the Falling Rand

The dramatic fall of the Rand provides us with a golden opportunity to re-assess and re-direct the South African Economic process. We have been trying to keep up with the Jones' in terms of both economic production and consumption. We have tried to be a global player outside our area of comparative advantage. In our economic GEAR policy we have swallowed the prescriptions of the IMF and the WTO (the so-called Washington consensus) for structural readjustment and fiscal discipline and allowed these to set our economic policy.

What should we do today? We suggest the following basic steps:

There is a wide range of possibilities. We now require a commitment to shifting the basic paradigm of economic development from one driven by market forces to one with its roots in the realities and needs of social and environmental structures and forces as these exist in South Africa today.

Aart Roukens de Lange

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