TEAM SA AT DAVOS
Malusi Gigaba predicts pain but investors ‘positive’
SA’s budget has involved making tough decisions to stabilise its debt and as a result of these the country will feel some pain, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. Gigaba said the budget, to be presented in February, would involve interventions in order to boost confidence and grow the economy. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said he would "announce the tough decisions to stabilise the debt but reduce the budget deficit", and that South Africans "will have to bear some pain". Gigaba’s warning was echoed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD Christine Lagarde, who said SA needed to rebuild business confidence and clean out the rot. Her blunt message was delivered to Cyril Ramaphosa when the two met on Thursday. The IMF this week cut SA’s growth forecast for the next two years‚ citing political uncertainty. "We concurred that long-standing structural challenges continue to weigh on growth in SA. We consequently agreed tha...
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