Tag: Christie Viljoen

We are pleased to share our fifth South Africa Economic Outlook report for 2023. This edition focuses on the need for companies to report non-financial data in order to help measure socio-economic progress better than is currently being done by the calculation of gross domestic product (GDP).

Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni delivered his Budget Speech 2021 to Parliament on Wednesday, February 24. This document provides an overview of key information relating to the economic outlook, government revenue and expenditure, fiscal balance, and the public debt trajectory.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on 12 November 2020 that employment in South Africa increased by 543,000 in the third quarter of the year – recovering some of the 2.2 million jobs lost during the lockdown-hit second quarter.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is meeting again - 21 July 2020 to 23 July 2020 - to discuss policy matters. The central bank lowered interest rates by a cumulative 275 basis points in the year so far, most recently making a 0.5 percentage point cut in lending rates on May 21.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his Supplementary Budget Speech 2020 to (a virtual) Parliament on June 24. Against the backdrop of a pandemic and deepening economic recession, the minister released adjustments to the February budget numbers, also promising a second round of adjustments in October alongside the Medium‐Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

With severely limited fiscal space, planned economic reforms need to be fast-tracked. South Africa is in a grip of panic over the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The situation prompted an extraordinary address to the nation by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the evening of March 15. Apart from very real human health concerns, he commented that the outlook for the local economy – already on a weak footing heading into 2020 – is a big headache. Economic growth forecasts have been cut over the past few weeks as forecasters realise that the impact of the pandemic will be larger than previously thought. This begs the question: how will local authorities respond?

Budget statements have in recent years perennially made downward revisions in economic growth projections. Disappointing growth outcomes compared to official forecasts is partly attributed to the inability to implement planned structural reforms that would have delivered improved growth outcomes.

Public sector staff expands and retail jobs disappoint. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on that South Africa’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 29.1% during the fourth quarter of 2019. With this reading, South Africa has the fourth-highest unemployment rate out of 182 countries tracked by Trading Economics, after Namibia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Angola.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on October 29 that South Africa’s unemployment rate increased from 29.0% in 2019 Q2 to 29.1% in the third quarter. This was the highest jobless reading since 2003, and South Africa now has the joint fourth-highest unemployment rate out of 182 countries tracked by Trading Economics.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered a macabre Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBSP) to Parliament on October 30. The MTBPS communicates to government and the people the economic context of the country and fiscal spending priorities over the coming three years. (It does not include detailed spending plans or tax proposals, which are left to the main budget in February.)