The Herculean task of pulling SA back from the precipice
SA stands on the edge of a political and fiscal cliff, the FM's Claire Bisseker argues in her new book. It has averted disaster before — but it will require immense national resolve to do so again
SA stands on the edge of a political and fiscal cliff, the Financial Mail's economics editor Claire Bisseker in her new book, On the Brink: SA’s Political and Fiscal Cliff-hanger (Tafelberg). The country has pulled back from disaster before — but it will require the right leadership, economic policies and immense national resolve to do so again Few countries in transition have managed to get a grip on public finances as well as SA did after the advent of democracy in 1994. The speed with which SA achieved fiscal stability earned the young democracy international plaudits and, over time, was recognised by successive sovereign credit-rating upgrades. Now, just over 20 years later, as SA comes to terms with having been downgraded to junk status, much of that fiscal progress has been wiped out. This is mainly because of years of unsustainable spending on a burgeoning but unproductive government in a low-growth environment.In early 2013, we began asking if SA was on a slippery slope to b...
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