New SA governor takes office today

  1. Posted on Monday 9 November 2009 - 13:03
    Mernat
    Image of Mernat
    Mernat Mafirakurewa, AfricaNews reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa
    Gill Marcus the new South African Reserve Bank Governor takes office on Monday. She becomes the ninth leader of the 88-year-old bank, taking over from Tito Mboweni. Under Mboweni, the bank reached a positive reserves position in 2004 and since then has built holdings to just under $40 billion.
    Gill Marcus
    AfricaNews reporter said Marcus will be hard pressed to guard the central bank's independence as vehemently, and successfully as Mboweni did.

    Marcus' appointment has prompted media speculation about how she will deal with labour demands to loosen monetary policy further, as well as the central bank's independence, and the question of the country's general monetary policy regime.

    Her appointment as central bank head comes at a time when monetary policy in South Africa - and specifically the inflation targeting regime - has come under attack from the ruling ANC party's left-leaning allies.

    Marcus chairs her first Monetary Policy Committee meeting next week, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling for a rate cut of at least 1 percentage point to ease unemployment.

    The key rate was held at 7 percent for a second consecutive meeting on October 22 as the economy’s first recession in 17 years eased and energy costs threatened to fuel inflation.
    AfricaNews reporter said Marcus has not given any interviews since her appointment or made public comments about the inflation-targeting policy.

    Marcus holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of South Africa. She worked for the ruling African National Congress while in exile in the U.K. in 1969, returning to South Africa in 1990. She was elected to parliament in the country’s first all-race elections in 1994, heading up the parliamentary finance committee before moving to the National Treasury.

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