EDITORIAL: Recession not the only worry
The government needs to infuse the economy with confidence and business needs to capitalise on that confidence and invest
First, just to rub salt into the wound, it was widely expected that the rebound in mining and, particularly, in agriculture would help SA avoid a recession. And they did rebound, but insufficiently to counterbalance something that has been apparent in the recent company results of the retail sector: a consumer spending pattern that is fraught with strain and apprehension. The worst-performing sectors were those associated with the retail trade, which is of huge concern because this was the sector that more or less held the ship on course in 2016. It is a truism of South African economics that when consumers feel buoyant, the country prospers. But this time, the worst-performing sector was trade, catering and accommodation, where output plunged 5.9%, cutting 0.8percentage points off headline growth. Banking added to the gloom, with the financial and business service sector contracting for the first time since the international recession in 2009. Taken together, this was sufficient to...
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