The World Bank has raised its growth forecasts for SA due to a rise in business confidence and recent political changes, but warned that growth potential would remain weak without policy implementation. While the bank expects growth to accelerate to 1.4% in 2018 from a previous estimate of 1.1%, economic growth is expected to remain less than 2% in the medium term. Despite a rebound in growth on improved confidence levels and a smooth political transition in the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa, SA is lagging behind its peers in emerging markets as it remains one of the world’s most unequal countries. Emerging markets are expected to grow 4.5% in 2018. Sebastien Dessus, World Bank programme leader for SA, said that reaching 5% growth in line with the National Development Plan was not realistic in the near term. The forecast is also more pessimistic than that of the Treasury, which is expecting growth of 1.5% in 2018, and of the Reserve Bank, which is expecting 1.7% growth. Amon...
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