Economists are hopeful that continued signs of recovery will be evident from the main economic data releases this week — retail sales for January, and consumer and building confidence surveys for the first quarter of 2022.

The economy has bounced back faster from the July unrest and Covid-19 pandemic than expected. This pushed the annual growth rate to almost 5% last year — a huge turnaround from the record 6.4% year-on-year contraction SA suffered in 2020 at the height of the pandemic...