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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The monetary-fiscal policy mix in South Africa |
Author: | Swanepoel, Jan A. |
Year: | 2004 |
Periodical: | South African Journal of Economics |
Volume: | 72 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 730-758 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | fiscal policy monetary policy |
External link: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2004.tb00132.x/pdf |
Abstract: | The recent world economic slowdown has focused renewed attention on how far fiscal and monetary policies can support demand in a recession. To find the optimum combination of fiscal policy measures, together with the right mix between monetary, fiscal and other macroeconomic policies, is the challenge that policymakers in South Africa have to face. This paper reviews the South African monetary and fiscal policy stance over the business cycle since the 1970s and considers the question of whether these policies were coordinated or uncoordinated over the years. The results of the analysis suggest that fiscal policy in South Africa was mainly conducted procyclically over the period fiscal 1972/1973 to 2002/2003, while monetary policy was mainly countercyclical. Overall, the monetary-fiscal policy mix was characterized by uncoordinated policies. The timing and accuracy of discretionary fiscal policy in South Africa could have been adversely influenced by the absence of any measure of the extent and role of automatic stabilizers in South Africa. The role and size of automatic fiscal stabilizers in South Africa must be recognized and quantified. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |