NEVA MAKGETLA: Southern Africa on the short end again
Creditors simply refuse to fund the sort of aggressive fiscal stimulus that has boosted growth in the global North
03 May 2021 - 13:53
SA’s economic wellbeing depends heavily on how well Southern Africa recovers from the pandemic. The region has been spared the worst of Covid-19, but in 2020 it saw a sharper economic decline than the rest of the world. Outside SA, the IMF forecasts it will grow 2% in 2021 — about a third as fast as the global economy.
That outcome arises from slow growth after the commodity boom ended a decade ago; the region’s weakness relative to international lenders, which cuts the scope for fiscal stimulus; and the incoherence of national and regional economic strategies. ..
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