THE World Bank has halved its forecast for SA’s economic growth for 2016, from 0.8% in April to 0.4%, in line with the Reserve Bank’s projection. The World Bank released its Africa’s Pulse report, which looks at economic growth prospects and developments in sub-Saharan Africa, on Thursday. The World Bank expects economic growth in SA to be marginal in 2016 and pick up moderately in 2017. "Private consumption is expected to remain weak owing to rising unemployment, high household indebtedness, and elevated inflation. Investment growth is expected to remain sluggish because of policy uncertainty and longstanding structural issues, including unstable power supplies," the bank said in the report. The World Bank expects SA’s economic growth to improve slightly to 1.1% in 2017 and 1.8% in 2018. It also cut its forecast for sub-Saharan Africa economic growth, and expects growth to decelerate sharply from 3% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2016 — the slowest growth in more than two decades.
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