Will budget balance debt reduction with growth incentives?
Treasury’s foot-dragging in providing tax breaks and other vital incentives is not doing the government’s investment drive any favours
After nine wasted years, President Cyril Ramaphosa is on an investment drive. His investment conference last year saw firm public pledges that new investment will flow. In his recent state of the nation speech he boasted: “The conference provided great impetus to our drive to mobilise R1.2-trillion in investment over five years ... The investment conference attracted around R300bn in investment pledges from South African and international companies. There was also a significant increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year. In 2017, we recorded an inflow of FDI amounting to R17bn. Official data shows that just in the first three quarters of 2018, there was an inflow of R70bn. This is a phenomenal achievement compared to the low level of investment in the previous years”.
LISTEN: What to expect from this year's National Budget:..
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