Speaking at the Steel & Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) annual conference, he said that these so-called shock absorbers would allow the country’s economy to recover by next year, growing by about 2,5%.
“A 2,5% growth rate is not exceptional, but it is indeed not a bad performance considering the severity of the global downturn that is impacting on us,” he said at the conference in Johannesburg.
The government had implemented a flexible and competitive rand exchange rate, counter cyclical fiscal policies complemented by falling inflation rates, as well as infrastructure spend, as shock absorbers.
However, these measures would not prevent Africa’s largest economy from entering a recession, Le Roux said.
South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1,8% in the final quarter of 2008, and soon-to-be-released first-quarter GDP figures will indicate whether the country is in a recession.
Source:
SA’s economy could grow by 2,5% in 2010 – economist
Engineering News
May 14, 2009
