SA’s growth is lagging substantially behind other emerging economies as policy uncertainty continues to batter business confidence, according to a report from the World Bank. Emerging markets are expected to drive global growth, which has recovered to its full potential since the 2008-09 financial crisis. However, SA is expected to drag down this momentum. While the World Bank expects SA’s economic growth to accelerate to 1.1% in 2018 from 0.8% in 2017, emerging markets are expected to average 4.5% growth in 2018. SA has also fallen far below the global average of 3.1%. Since the 2008-09 recession, SA’s economic growth has not been robust enough to lead to widespread job creation in the private sector, says Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings. “Policy uncertainty is likely to remain and could weigh on investment,” the World Bank said in an economic outlook report released on Wednesday. The report explained that while there was strong growth in the agricultural sector as well as a re...

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