SA is experiencing one of the worst growth periods in its history, and if the forecasts prove correct, the current decade will be the second-worst in the postwar period, the Reserve Bank said on Wednesday, as it released its Monetary Policy Review. The Bank has also calculated that the economic growth rate in 2016 could have been 2.1%, instead of the outcome of 0.3%, were it not for the decline in confidence, which was one of the key reasons SA’s growth failed to follow world growth, as it had done in the past. This demonstrated the cost of policy uncertainty and the importance of restoring confidence, the Bank said in the review, which is published twice a year to coincide with the monetary policy forums that the Bank holds around the country that are intended to broaden discussion on monetary policy to a wider audience. The Bank expressed concern, however, that its calculations suggested that "normal" growth was about 2% — which is below the longer-run trend for SA of 3% and well ...
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