SA constrained by insufficient purchasing power and its failure to tap global sources
Poverty, unemployment and inequality would fade if value-added export channels were developed
Haphazard policy-making routinely traces to the ANC being overwhelmed by corruption and discredited ideologies. But why can’t any of the nation’s other key actors propose a workable growth model? The persistent methodological error is to see SA within an SA context. Might a protracted US-China trade war provoke the global perspective required to identify a high-growth path? A global perspective would highlight other methodological missteps. For instance, extreme inequality and unemployment distract from focusing on the primary challenge: SA requires a commercially robust strategy to pummel poverty. The presumption that SA’s 0.5% of global purchasing power is sufficient to fuel sustained high growth is unsupportable. Not being able to tap sufficient purchasing power is the country’s core — and self-imposed — binding constraint. If it were overcome through developing value-added export channels, investors would be too busy investing to attend investment summits. Poverty, unemployment ...
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