The crucial boxes economists would like to see ticked
Asha Speckman asked economists what would be the quickest fixes and priorities for the new government to encourage growth following this week's general election
Isaah Mhlanga, executive chief economist at Alexander Forbes Investments What are the three quickest fixes for a new government to get SA's economy growing? As Larry Summers put it, confidence is the cheapest stimulus, so the quickest way to boost growth is to boost confidence, for both consumers and business, by being clear with respect to the economic reform agenda. Other priorities should be to fix the Eskom financial problems and ensure stable electricity supply, to enable industry to operate at high capacity and fix all the other state-owned enterprises and stop fruitless expenditure across government. The saved funds can be deployed to productive uses. What are the biggest risks to economic growth? The single biggest risk to growth currently is Eskom's financial sustainability and ability to provide energy. Without energy there is no investment, and a financially unstable Eskom poses a risk to the fiscus and credit ratings. What should the new government's infrastructure prior...
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