Growth in 2017 is likely to be lower than the 1.3% that the Treasury forecast in February and Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has warned that further consolidation measures might be necessary. “Significant risks remain to the achievement of our fiscal targets,” Gigaba said on Thursday in summing up the first reading debate on the Appropriations Bill in Parliament. His comments come in the wake of the announcement earlier this week of a 0.7% contraction in the first quarter, which pushed SA into recession. Gigaba reaffirmed the government’s commitment to consolidation as a key pillar of fiscal policy but economists have warned that in the context of low growth and lower-than-expected revenue, this would require a cutback in spending and/or higher taxes. The IMF has revised SA’s growth projection in 2017 to 1%, while the World Bank has projected a 0.6% growth rate, down from its previous 1.1%. BNP Paribas SA economist Jeffrey Schultz has revised his growth estimate to 0.7% in 2017, ris...
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