VOLUME / UITGAWE 68
No. 1, March 2000
Nr. 1, Maart 2000
ABSTRACTS OF ARTICLES /
SAMEVATTING VAN ARTIKELS
Volume 68, No. 1, March 2000
Uitgawe 68, Nr. 1, Maart 2000
EDITORIAL
D.J.J. BOTHA
It has been many years since the central council
of the Economic Society of South Africa first discussed the desirability of forging closer
links with kindred societues in the neighbouring countries, beyond the publication in this
Journal of papers contributed by individual scholars in those countries. These
included papers from Zimbabwe and Botswana, with others in the more recent past coming
from countries further to the north, as well as Namibia.
With this issue we are breaking new ground in our
quest for closer co-operation by devoting a special volume to papers read at a one-day
bankers' conference organised by the Bank of Namibia in Windhoek in November, 1999.
The first paper, later kindly contributed by the Governor of the Bank at the request of
the editors, gives a brief introduciton to the events leading to the establishment of the
Bank in 1990, as also its major current functions.
We are fortunate in obtaining the services of two
eminent economists, Dr Desmond C Krogh and Dr Chris Hoveka, as Guest Editors of this
issue. Dr Krogh, an ex-Namibian, served for ten years as Governor of the Reserve
bank in Rhodesia, and later of Zimbabwe after independence. He subsequently occupied
a senior position in the South African Reserve Bank, and is alos an honorary advisory
editor of this Journal. Dr Hoveka, a Namibian and graduate of universities in
Britain and the United States, is the Senior Manager of the Research Department of the
Bank of Namibia.
This issue has been kindly sponsored by the Bank
of Namibia.
CENTRAL
BANKING IN NAMIBIA
T.K. ALWEENDO
Click here
for the article
RESTORING
BANKING STABILITY: BEYOND
SUPERVISED CAPITAL REQUIREMENT
J. CAPRIO and P. HONOHAN
The need to modernise Payment
Systems and to make them more efficient in light of rapidly changing condition in
financial markets, trade and consumer needs worldwide have become urgent concerns for
countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). All SADC member
countries have now embarked on programmes towards modernising their Payment Systems.
This paper identifies and discusses some of the challenges that banks (including
central banks) in the SADC will have to address in modernising Payment Systems and
promoting their efficiency in the early years of the new millennium. Among these
challenges are development and implementation of RTGS Systems, convergence of payment
systems legislation and practices of countries in the SADC and the provision of payment
system services to a wider cross-section of the population.
INTERNATIONAL
CAPITAL MARKET CRISES
AND FINANCIAL POLICY RESPONSES
CHARLES C. OKEAHALAM
The recent economic and social
turmoils in South-East Asia, Russia, and Brazil have been caused by and are most vividly
illustrated by a significant down turn in capital asset and current market and financial
policy. Furthermore given the extent of globalisation and the breadth and depth of
international capital markets, it would appear, on first blush, that countries can no
longer easily immunize themselves from imported capital market and exchange rate risk.
This paper uses the principle of information asymmetry to discuss the causes of
capital market crises and some central bank strategies for containing the adverse impacts
of such events.
THE
DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCIAL
MARKETS IN NAMIBIA
BRYNJULV VOLLAN
Financial markets in Namibia are
still at a rudimentary stage of development. The reasons for the most important
impediments are analysed, with emphasis of Namibia's present exchange rate arrangement
with free capital flows among the CMA countries. The close financial relationship
that exist with South Africa is of particular importance. An effort is made to
identify some important principles on which a development strategy for financial markets
should be based. A number of practical steps are then suggested for gradually
building up those segments of the financial markets in Namibia that can be useful for the
development of the economy. The role of the most important stakeholders which are
the Government, commercial banks and the Central Bank, is explored.
BANKS AND
MICRO-FINANCE IN NAMIBIA
CHARLES C. OKEAHALAM and DALE W.
ADAMS
This paper uses data and
information on Namibia to discuss the nature and availability of micro-finance and the
problems of providing low income and rural credit financial services. We note that
in Namibia, three segments of the financial system are involved in micro-finance: the
regulated formal segment, the officially recognised but unregulated recognition or
regulation. We also explain that most of the micro-deposit services are provided by
formal sectors (banks) and by the post savings system - particularly in rural areas.
However, the formal part of the financial system, provides few micro-credit loans.
Most small loans are supplied by informal and semi-formal sources.
Furthermore, the recent rapid expansion in the cash loan industry has sharply expanded the
supply of small, short-term loans in urban areas and non-governmental agencies and
parastatals have been less successful in expanding rural lending. Informal lending
is also particularly repressed in rural and agrarian areas.
THE
NAMIBIAN DOLLAR AT HOME AND ABROAD
D.J.J. BOTHA
The paper first analyses the major
sectors of the Namibian economy. These have not shown any marked changes over the
recent past years in their relative contributions to GDP. The paper critically
discusses the view that the Namibian dollar should have devalued. It analyses the
major considerations around a decision in general to devalue a currency, and comes to the
conclusion that Namibia should be guided by the monetary policy of its major trading
partner, South Africa, but that is should be allowed to have some say in decisions taken
in Pretoria that affect other countries in the Common Monetary Area. |
