Moses D Pelaelo: Recent developments in international financial markets

Keynote address by Mr Moses D Pelaelo, Governor of the Bank of Botswana, at the 7th Annual National Asset Liability Management Africa Conference, Cape Town, 2 November 2017.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

It is indeed an honour and pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to this gathering this morning.  I wish to start by thanking the organisers and, in particular, the Chairman, former Deputy Governor at the Bank of Botswana, Mr Oduetse Motshidisi, for the invitation to this Conference held in this beautiful city of Cape Town.  

As many of you would be aware, while it is true that the primary mandate of any central bank is price stability, Governors have a myriad of responsibilities on a daily basis.  Beyond the pre-occupation with the core mandate of monetary and financial stability, many central banks, including my own, the Bank of Botswana, have responsibility for the regulation and supervi-sion of the banking sector; promotion of an efficient payments system; currency management; and, also, the management of foreign exchange reserves, as well as the closely related roles of economic and financial adviser to Government. Equally im-portant are considerations such as broader financial sector de-velopment issues including financial inclusion, consumer pro-tection and financial literacy. My comments today will reflect these mixed perspectives.