Tag: government spending

James Meade, British recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, reported in 1961 that Mauritius faced a bleak future. The country was reliant on a single crop (sugar), subject to weather and price shocks, threatened by over-population, had no potential alternative job opportunities, was multi-ethnic, had large income inequalities, and had experienced political conflict.

While much has been written about the need for structural reform in the economy, and the need for the government to have more investment friendly policies, it is also useful to look at where the government can cut costs to prevent South Africa falling off a fiscal cliff in the medium term.

A 'new' economic school of thought has emerged and gained mass popularity over the recent years. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), seeks to challenge the mainstream consensus across the economic spectrum. What exactly is MMT and could it work to address South Africa’s economic woes?

The Washington Post recently ran an opinion piece by Colbert I. King about immigrants to America and the remittances they send back to family and friends in their home countries. Mr. King was speaking of immigrants to the United States but this holds some important lessons for South Africa as well.

Generating long-term economic growth and employment is the most sustainable way to boost tax revenues and stabilise the debt-to-GDP ratio, especially if augmented by the reduction in government spending and the restructuring of spending towards investment.

Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni will deliver his 2020 budget speech today. South Africa enters a new decade with a growth forecast of only 0.7% (according to ratings agency Moody’s).

A small group of naïve billionaires in the United States are lining up begging for higher taxes on the super rich. I say naïve because they itemise a whole list of problems they imagine can be solved with this additional tax. The whole thing reminds me of the history of foreign aid in Africa.

The latest GDP numbers show that the South African economy declined by 3.2% for the first quarter of 2019. This comes after President Ramaphosa announced a R50 billion stimulus package in September 2018. Since that stimulus followed on a decade of stimulus spending instituted since the 2008 global economic crisis, we must now ask whether Minister Pravin Gordhan’s decision to choose stimulus over austerity was the right one.