SA’s economy will pick up next year as commodity prices rise and a historic drought eases, according to the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll, but it is still short of the necessary investor confidence to grow faster. The poll, taken in the past three days and released on Thursday, predicted the economy would expand 1.1% next year from 0.4% this year, the same consensus forecast made in November. The latest GDP data for the third quarter showed the economy expanded by only 0.2% compared with a revised 3.5% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas economist Jeffrey Schultz wrote in a note that he expected growth to gain speed next year, but the trends in gross domestic fixed investment remained concerning. This type of investment is normally capital spending, such as buying new machinery for future production. The private sector makes up nearly two-thirds of the gross domestic fixed investment contribution to GDP. "A lack of policy coherence and an increasingly uncertain political envir...
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