SA’s fiscal position is precarious. Debt stock more than doubled from 26% of GDP in 2008 to a pre-pandemic level of 65.5% in 2020. The Covid-19 crisis has pushed this to about 80%.
The dynamics at play, including a now-large stock of debt, low rates of nominal growth, excessive expenditure relative to revenues and stubbornly high borrowing costs, mean that SA may not be able to contain the rise in debt and that the cost of servicing it is likely to become overwhelming...
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