Tag: Lullu Krugel

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana delivered his Budget Speech 2024 to Parliament and the nation on 21 February 2024. A key announcement was that tax rates will not be increased in 2024/2025, as previously signalled by the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) 2023, to generate the extra R15 billion needed in revenue.

The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change draws to a close this week. For Africa, discussions at this year’s conference placed the continent as a central player that is playing an active role in actioning efforts and initiatives for a better, more sustainable future.

We are pleased to share our second South Africa Economic Outlook report for 2023. In the wake of Budget 2023 and announced incentives for investment in solar power generation, this edition focuses on green incentives and their role in encouraging local businesses to invest in renewable electricity generation.

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.