The International Monetary Fund, the IMF, has pencilled in lower growth for South Africa this year. It is now expecting the economy to grow by 1.9% from its previous forecast of 2.2%. But we’re not alone in terms of getting a downgrade to our growth forecast. The IMF is also expecting a weaker performance from the global economy at large for this year. Here to tell us why is Max Alier, the senior South Africa representative for the IMF. Max, it is good to speak with you again, sir.
Of those three main reasons – the much weaker performance that is expected for the global economy, the underwhelming performance of our economy in the third quarter, as well as business confidence not being in the best mood – which had the biggest impact on the growth revision? MAX ALIER: First of all, I, the revision …. percent, 0.3 percentage points. I would say that it’s probably the first two that I mentioned.
But what are the concerns with the US? I mean, from this side, we read their statistics. They’re at full employment. Their economy is growing businesses. We’ve just had a conversation with our market watcher that the earnings that businesses are reporting are intact. So what are the major concerns about the state of the US economy right now that has led to the chipping off in global growth expectations? MAX ALIER: Well, for the US we revised the projection down significantly from about 5.
Right. Bringing the attention back to South Africa and the business mood, how have you measured weak business confidence? I ask this against the backdrop that we have seen this government trying to meet business halfway. We’ve seen positive changes in the energy space when it comes to renewable energy, we’ve seen a government that seems to be taking a very tough stance and an iron fist to rooting out corruption that has cost the economy dearly in the past.
All right. Yes, many have said that incident alone, the July riots, cost the economy around R50 billion in lost output – according to some estimates. Max, we’ll leave it there. Thanks much for your time, sir. Max Alier is the senior South Africa representative for the IMF. jQuery.on { event.preventDefault; jQuery.animate).offset.top }, 500); }); jQuery.ready { jQuery.bind { jQuery.lightBox }); function getSelectedText { if { var range=window.getSelection; return range.
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