Tag: PwC Strategy&

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.

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?

With a unanimous decision, members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) voted on 17 January to keep interest rates unchanged, in line with analyst expectations. This follows an interest rate hike of 25 basis points (bps) in November 2018, which brought the repo and prime lending rates to 6.75% and 10.25%, respectively.