The Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Mr TT Mboweni, briefed the Nedlac Executive Council this morning. During his discussions with the Council he mentioned that the SARB had improved the Net Open Foreign Currency Position (NOFP) to the extent that for the month of October the NOFP was at a positive level of US$2,7 billion. He further indicated that preliminary figures show that the SARB had creamed off approximately US$1 billion during the month of November to date.The Governor, however, emphasised that these operations represent normal prudent management of the Reserve Bank's balance sheet as is ordinarily the case in central banking. They are in no way directed at seeking to influence a particular level of the rand, whose value will continue to be set by the market. The Governor also briefed the Nedlac Executive about the state of the global and domestic economy including domestic and global inflation as well as the conduct of monetary policy in South Africa.