NEWS ANALYSIS: Rob Davies looks on bright side despite ratings downgrades
Glass Half Full index finds while global executives are worried about the effect of politics on business, they are more upbeat on the world economy and FDI prospects
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies is fond of relating the glass half-empty, glass half-full analogy to South Africans. He is also a perpetual optimist. Most recently, he has based this optimism on the country’s return to the annual AT Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index in 2017 after a two-year absence, despite SA’s sovereign ratings downgrades. The index, ironically entitled Glass Half Full, finds that while global executives are worried about the effect of politics on business, they are more upbeat on the world economy and foreign direct investment (FDI) prospects. It cites the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad’s) world investment figures that FDI flows into SA in 2016 were $2.4bn — or 38% higher than in 2015. This is "likely" as a result of improving short-term economic prospects and the long-term investment potential in SA’s manufacturing sector, says AT Kearney.The use of the word "likely" shows how fickle such an index can be, especially in a...
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