The Old English Proverb – it never rains but it pours – best captures the South African mood regarding our economic outlook for the New Year. Record high unemployment; an interest rate hike; petrol price increases; and the aftermath of the July unrest are all forming a perfect economic storm threatening any growth prospects. The […]
In an interview before delivering his first Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS, or ‘mini-budget’), the new Finance Minister jokingly said that the difference between him and his predecessor is that he wears better shoes. The mini-budget that Mr Godongwana delivered bore testament to the shoe reference – it was not much different to the […]
We are asked to participate in our democracy by casting our vote in the local government elections on 1 November. Many will be wondering what the fuss is all about, who to vote for, and who the candidates are in our wards. Hopefully the articles below can shed some light. Economic Digest 25 Local […]
The Department of Social Development recently published, for public comment, a Green Paper on Comprehensive Social Security and Retirement Reform. In policy development, a Green Paper is akin to a shopping list that contains a wide range of proposals that may or may not become policies that the government adopts. One of the key proposals […]
Enoch Godongwana is the new man entrusted with steering the South African economy. Not everyone is happy with his appointment, but it seems that the business community is cautiously optimistic. Who is he? What is expected of him? What is his initial thinking? The following articles answer some of these questions.Economic Digest 23 Enoch Godongwana […]
Economic Digest 22 SAA Selling Off the Family Junk by Kenny Pasensie
In June this year the CPLO published a Briefing Paper (No 523) dealing with financing options for a universal income grant (available at https://tinyurl.com/tse998ef). One of the sources of the BP was a policy brief by the Institute for Economic Justice (https://tinyurl.com/8e9z62vn). The IEJ recently published a supplement to the earlier policy brief which expands […]
Budget 2021 may present a ‘zugzwang’ situation for Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni. In chess a player finds herself in a ‘zugzwang’ situation when any legal move will leave the player worse off. With all the competing economic priorities demanding equal attention from the Minister, his moves may leave some feeling hard done by. Economic Digest […]
What Lies Ahead for Our Economy in 2021? ‘Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble’, the words spoken by the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, would probably not be out of place at a meeting of economists as they try to determine what lies ahead for South Africa’s economy. As these curated […]
