Rand and interest rates will fall further - Nedcor

THE RAND will continue to depreciate more than the inflation rate in the immediate future, but interest rates will go back down during the next few months, said Nedcor chief executive officer Richard Laubscher.
Addressing the Exporters' Club in Johannesburg last week, he said that as a result of new Government policy moves, the rand was now more balanced.
In 1996 there had been a policy vacuum and the Rand was overvalued.
Policy changes included: the introduction of GEAR, which he described as an outstanding macro-economic growth programme; the GATT/Uruguay rounds and the major changes in exchange controls introduced by Government.
The fall of the Rand had also been influenced by the Asian situation which has spread to other markets, he said.
Laubscher described the inflexible labour market as a major problem.
It is a tragedy that big business has to compete with this inflexible labour market. Big business is now downsizing instead of upsizing and the construction, farming and small businesses are being hardest hit, he said.
The unemployment problem had to be resolved to resolve the crime problem to gain investor confidence, said Laubscher.
BY ANNA COX