Abstract
In the early 1990s many Southern African economies embarked on financial liberalisation. Although it is too soon to carry out sophisticated econometric analysis of this change in policy, the available empirical evidence may be inspected to see whether it lends support to advocates of financial liberalisation. In this article we explore the avenues through which financial liberalisation might be expected to exert an influence. Consistent with much of the existing literature, we discover that a degree of agnosticism is warranted. Financial liberalisation is no panacea and will not improve economic performance unless accompanied by sound economic policies. It remains difficult to isolate the effects of financial liberalisation from the data available. © Overseas Development Institute, 2004.