The World Bank has fallen in line with dominant economist sentiment and slashed SA’s economic growth outlook to 0.6% in 2017, down 0.5 percentage points from its January forecast of 1.1%. The bank cited the deterioration in investor confidence following recent credit rating downgrades and “higher-than-anticipated” policy uncertainty as reasons for its revision. The decision by the bank, outlined in its report Global Economic Prospects June 2017 is hardly surprising and comes after the Reserve Bank also cut the country’s 2017 growth forecast to 1% in May from 1.2%. Most major banks have also revised their forecasts down. FNB further revised its forecast of 0.7% to 0.6%. The IMF revised its forecast up to 1% from 0.8% in May, basing its decision on the end of the worst drought in more than a century that is expected to lift agricultural production while rising commodity prices would boost the mining sector. The Treasury predicted growth of 1.3% in 2017. GDP figures due to be released ...
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