Reform urgently or stagnate, IMF warns
Lack of reforms hinder SA’s ability to boost confidence and investment and improve growth
The country needs to institute urgent reforms to its product and labour markets to allow the entry of new firms and to reduce impediments to job creation, otherwise the South African economy will be stuck in the doldrums, the IMF warns. In the absence of such reforms, SA would be unable to bolster confidence and investment or to improve growth. The IMF expressed these sentiments in its World Economic Outlook report, which it released on Tuesday. The international lender again placed the country’s growth for 2017 at 0.8%, which local economists viewed as pessimistic. The growth forecast was lowered to 0.8% in October 2016 from 1%. The Treasury forecast growth for 2017 at 1.3% and the Reserve Bank placed it at 1.2%. The global economy was set to grow 3.5% in 2017 because of "buoyant financial markets and a long-awaited cyclical recovery in manufacturing and trade", the IMF report said. SA was likely to benefit from a rebound in commodity prices, dissipation of the drought and improved...
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