{"id":13731,"date":"2012-08-22T03:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T01:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/s-africa-unlikely-to-make-dent-on-joblessness-marcus\/"},"modified":"2012-08-22T03:04:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T01:04:26","slug":"s-africa-unlikely-to-make-dent-on-joblessness-marcus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-unlikely-to-make-dent-on-joblessness-marcus\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa unlikely to make dent on joblessness-Marcus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Aug 21 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa is unlikely to<br \/>\nmake a significant dent on its high level of unemployment even<br \/>\nif the economy manages to grow at higher rates, Reserve Bank<br \/>\nGovernor Gill Marcus said on Tuesday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a fundraising dinner, Marcus said the bank had<br \/>\nbeen cutting its growth forecasts for the past year with GDP<br \/>\ngrowth now expected to average about 2.7 percent this year and<br \/>\n3.8 percent in 2013. The challenges facing the domestic economy,<br \/>\npartly due to the global downturn, were &#8220;daunting&#8221;, she said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even if we manage to grow at higher levels, it will be<br \/>\ndifficult to absorb such vast numbers of unemployed, especially<br \/>\nin the short to medium term,&#8221; Marcus said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>President Jacob Zuma has singled out one of South Africa&#8217;s<br \/>\nbiggest challenges as the jobless rate which has persisted<br \/>\naround 25 percent for the past year and was at 24.9 percent in<br \/>\nthe second quarter, according to the latest official statistics.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The natural rate of unemployment in South Africa appears to<br \/>\nbe in excess of 20 percent, and significant structural changes<br \/>\nwill be required in order to make inroads into this,&#8221; Marcus<br \/>\nsaid.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s potential output growth had declined to 3.5<br \/>\npercent from 4.5 percent before the global economic slowdown and<br \/>\nwould be further constrained by domestic factors such as<br \/>\nelectricity shortages until next year, she said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Last week&#8217;s crackdown against protesting Lonmin Plc<br \/>\n miners that left more than 40 dead has put the focus on<br \/>\nSouth Africa&#8217;s unemployment and its growing black underclass,<br \/>\noften uneducated and underpaid, that has seen few benefits from<br \/>\nthe end of apartheid nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It has also raised hard questions about investing in<br \/>\nAfrica&#8217;s top economy and the ruling ANC&#8217;s ability to deliver on<br \/>\noverdue promises of job creation and change.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG Aug 21 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa is unlikely to make a significant dent on its high level of unemployment even if the economy manages to grow at higher rates, Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said on Tuesday. Speaking at a fundraising dinner, Marcus said the bank had been cutting its growth forecasts for the [&hellip;]<\/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-13731","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\/13731","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=13731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}