SA’s big headache: how can the economy bounce back?
As load-shedding and higher electricity tariffs threaten the economy and consumers come under further strain, economists are steadily revising down their forecasts
The last time SA experienced growth of more than 5%, was in 2007 with the global financial crisis still a year off. Then president Thabo Mbeki confidently told MPs that economic growth in SA was breaking historical records — there was an unprecedented eight-year stretch of strong figures. Since then, growth has steadily declined. First hit by the global recession, then the rot under former president Jacob Zuma and a final blow from flailing confidence levels, SA barely clawed out of 2018 with 1% and the forecasts for 2019 already indicate how pessimistic the outlook is. The Treasury and the Reserve Bank expect a tepid 1.5% and 1.7% respectively but as load-shedding and higher electricity tariffs threaten the economy and consumers come under further strain, economists are steadily revising down their forecasts. The Treasury has acknowledged that Eskom poses the biggest risk to growth, while prolonged strikes in the mining industry and weather conditions that could hamper the agricult...
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