{"id":112502,"date":"2018-04-05T18:47:42","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T16:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/ramaphosas-to-do-list-seven-economic-policy-areas-that-will-shift-the-dial-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-04-05T18:47:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T16:47:42","slug":"ramaphosas-to-do-list-seven-economic-policy-areas-that-will-shift-the-dial-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/ramaphosas-to-do-list-seven-economic-policy-areas-that-will-shift-the-dial-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa’s to do list: seven economic policy areas that will shift the dial | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramaphosa’s to do list: seven economic policy areas that will shift the dial<\/a>: <\/p>\n

South Africa faces many economic challenges.<\/span> GCIS<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Africa\u2019s new President, Cyril Ramaphosa, seems to have a lot going for him. His early new broom sweeps clean gestures have been incisive and the market indicators are responding well. A plethora of good news has come his way in the weeks since he was sworn in. <\/p>\n

The rand has remained strong, and with it the steadying of the inflation rate \u2013 at 4% the lowest it\u2019s been in three years. This in turn allowed the South African Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by 25 basis points. Few things benefit a feel good effect better than downward movement in interest rates.<\/p>\n

And business confidence is looking up. This could mean that companies use their high cash balances to invest.<\/p>\n

Most critically, global credit rating agency Moody\u2019s maintained South Africa\u2019s investment grade rating and upgraded the outlook of the country\u2019s sovereign debt to stable. And while one of the other top three rating agencies, S&P, didn\u2019t upgrade its sub-investment grading, it doubled its growth forecast for 2018 from 1% to 2%.<\/p>\n

Also auspicious is the trajectory of the global economy, if Trump\u2019s trade war can be contained. The prospect of continued economic growth across Africa and the huge improvement in the southern African environment with new leaders in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, are also positive.<\/p>\n

But Ramaphosa will have to do much more to rekindle growth, address deep inequalities and tackle corruption in the private and public sectors. Above all he must address policy uncertainty. This is affecting a range of key sectors from energy to telecoms, water mining and land.<\/p>\n

The Ramaphosa government can\u2019t do everything at once. There are seven key areas that South African\u2019s new president should focus on to make some headway.<\/p>\n

The to do list<\/h2>\n

Fiscal stability:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One critical challenge is maintaining macroeconomic stability \u2013 that means keeping the budget deficit within reasonable bounds and yet supporting economic expansion. So, he needs to be sure that any increases in government expenditure support growth and development.<\/p>\n

But this won\u2019t be easy given that the government has landed itself with a massive public sector wage bill. Costs have gone up dramatically as a result of higher wage settlements as well as employment going up from 2.5 million go 3.2 million under Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n

It will be hard for Ramaphosa to bring this back under control given that he also needs to win over the labour movement in his mission to build a new social contract between government, labour and business.<\/p>\n

At the same time, government has to attract capable professionals to deliver on its promises to replace talent lost during the frustrating Zuma years. Ramaphosa and his team will need to work hard to make public service an admired career proposition.<\/p>\n

Re-industrialisation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ramaphosa has promised to getting industry going in South Africa again. This requires three key conditions: <\/p>\n