By now we should know that infrastructure investment, while obviously necessary, isn’t a cure-all for economic ills.

From 2005-17 the government and state-owned company investment climbed by three quarters in real terms. The subsequent decline still left it 30% higher than in the mid-2010s. Yet boosting infrastructure spending by hundreds of billions did not prevent load-shedding, port delays and water disruptions, or see a jump in employment or economic growth. ..

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