Improved confidence should translate into better growth forecast, says Nene
The finance minister says he does not want to be overly optimistic, ‘we want to be realistic but we will revise these numbers upwards come the medium-term budget’
The National Treasury is likely to revise its growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 at the medium-term budget policy statement in October as a result of improved business and investor confidence, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said.He was speaking at his first address since his reappointment as finance minister at the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) leadership and collective bargaining conference in Kameeldrift on Monday."We do not want to be overly optimistic, we want to be realistic but we will revise these numbers upwards come the [medium-term budget policy statement]," the finance minister said.According to the 2018 Budget Review, economic growth is expected at 1.5% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019.Nene said the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa had reignited business and consumer confidence."As a country we are at a point where we need to look back and reflect on a number of things that have happened. We saw the country go in a direction where we felt it was not serving the intere...
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