{"id":12726,"date":"2012-07-25T01:29:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T23:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/s-africa-growth-seen-lower-inequalities-persist\/"},"modified":"2012-07-25T01:29:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T23:29:51","slug":"s-africa-growth-seen-lower-inequalities-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-growth-seen-lower-inequalities-persist\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa growth seen lower, inequalities persist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, July 24<\/span> (Reuters) – Growth in South Africa for
\n2012 is likely to be lower than earlier expected, the World Bank
\nsaid on Tuesday, a day after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan
\nsaid the government would also lower its forecasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“A weakened global economy and dampening of consumer and
\nbusiness confidence are triggering a slowdown in South Africa’s
\ngrowth momentum,” the World Bank said in a report, cutting its
\ngrowth forecast to 2.5 percent from the 3.1 percent seen last
\nNovember.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“South Africa is highly integrated with the global economy,
\nand is therefore susceptible to the ongoing slowdown in the Euro
\nzone countries and China, the two principal export destinations
\nfor its goods and services,” said World Bank country director
\nAsad Alam.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Expansion in Africa’s biggest economy is likely to miss the
\ngovernment’s current forecast of 2.7 percent, Finance Minister
\nPravin Gordhan said on Monday, while the central bank sounded a
\nwarning about its vulnerability renewed global weakness.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The World Bank report said South Africa’s progress toward
\nuniversal access to basic opportunities had seen mixed results,
\nwith impressive gains made in access to primary education,
\nelectricity and telecommunications.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But there were still inequalities in the provision of water,
\nsanitation, health insurance and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The employment situation is especially challenging for the
\nyounger labour force, residents of townships\/informal
\nsettlements and rural areas, and the non-white segments of the
\npopulation,” it said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

President Jacob Zuma’s government has in the last few years
\ngrappled with often violent protests in poor townships by blacks
\nbitter that they still have poor access to water, sanitation and
\nhousing 18 years after the end of white minority rule.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The government has singled out an unemployment rate of 25
\npercent as one of its major challenges, and economic growth
\nremains far below the 7 percent needed to significantly slash
\nthe jobless rate.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The policy challenge is to find a way to break this
\nvicious, self-perpetuating cycle of inequality in South Africa,”
\nthe World Bank report said. <\/p>\n

(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; editing by Ron Askew)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG, July 24 (Reuters) – Growth in South Africa for 2012 is likely to be lower than earlier expected, the World Bank said on Tuesday, a day after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the government would also lower its forecasts. “A weakened global economy and dampening of consumer and business confidence are triggering a slowdown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}