The state-owned Export Credit Insurance Corporation has lost business because of the inability of South African banks to source loans in dollars for foreign purchases of South African exports.
South African and international banks had reached agreement on a new mechanism of financing. It was expected to take effect shortly.
In the agency's annual report the agency's CEO Emile Mathee said the agency was losing projects mainly because of the uncertainties over a new "interest make-up dispensation" that had now been cleared up.
This dispensation created a system whereby government paid the interest rate differential on export credit loans. The agency provides insurance for export credit loans made to foreign buyers.
In the past, South African banks could only source the amounts for loans to foreign purchasers in South African Rands due to the unavailability of long-term dollar finance on the market.
