Financial Stability Board review Covid-related policy challenges facing the Continent
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) Regional Consultative Group (RCG) for Sub-Saharan Africa has reviewed the region’s vulnerabilities and policy challenges that have risen as a result on the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on African economies.
The review of the region’s Covid-related policy challenges and vulnerabilities by the FSB RCG co-chaired by Lesetja Kganyago, Governor, South African Reserve Bank and Ernest Addison, Governor, Bank of Ghana, was n the back of recent global and regional macroeconomic and financial market developments and their implications for financial stability on the African Continent.
Members of the FSB RCG in making the review, considered the lessons learned so far from the COVID-19 pandemic for their jurisdictions and policy challenges stemming from the recent crisis, including trade-offs between keeping in place measures to support the financing of the real economy and preserving policy space.
Members also reviewed vulnerabilities related to foreign currency funding, as illustrated by the external funding pressures experienced by emerging market economies during the March 2020 market stress.
The potential longer-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including debt overhang and corporate viability issues, and their possible impact on the financial system’s resilience and ability to support economic growth were also discussed by members with appropriate measures to mitigate them adopted.
Membership f the FSB RCG includes financial authorities from Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia as well as the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
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The FSB has six Regional Consultative Groups, established under the FSB Charter, to bring together financial authorities from FSB member and non-member countries to exchange views on vulnerabilities affecting financial systems and on initiatives to promote financial stability.
The FSB coordinates at the international level the work of national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies and develops and promotes the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory, and other financial sector policies in the interest of financial stability.
It brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in 24 countries and jurisdictions, international financial institutions, sector-specific international groupings of regulators and supervisors, and committees of central bank experts.
The FSB also conducts outreach with approximately 70 other jurisdictions through its six Regional Consultative Groups.
