\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) says it expects South Africa\u2019s economy to grow by 3% in 2012.<\/p>\n
Presenting BUSA\u2019s economic and business outlook for the country in 2012, BUSA Deputy CEO Raymond Parsons said looking at the present evidence, a 3% GDP trajectory though 2012 could be expected in a best case scenario.<\/p>\n
He said while this was positive growth, it was insufficient to meet South Africa\u2019s socio-economic challenges, especially given the downside risk. \u201cAt this rate, it will take South Africa much longer to reach its job creation and other socio-economic targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Implications for growth include volatility in the exchange rate and the country\u2019s trade balance would persist for the time being. BUSA said depending on developments abroad, the rand could weaken again if a sustainable, practical plan was not devised soon to resolve the Eurozone debt crisis.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, headline inflation was expected to continue hovering at the upper range of the Reserve Bank\u2019s inflation target range. BUSA expects interest rates to be kept unchanged for the time being, probably well into 2012.<\/p>\n
Core inflation remained well within the target range, with little sign of secondary inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA renewed recession in the global economy may even promote a further cut in rates in South Africa as recently suggested by the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development].<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are whirlpools on both sides, not on one only. If a serious global recession does unfold, then South Africa\u2019s growth rate could well fall below 3% next year,\u201d explained Parsons.<\/p>\n
BUSA said there should be no \u201ctax shocks\u201d when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan tables the country\u2019s budget in February, given the vulnerability of the economic recovery and the uncertain global situation which would damage business confidence and harm growth potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cAggressive taxation may defeat its own ends by diminishing the income to be taxed,\u201d said BUSA.<\/p>\n
It said that keeping state spending under control would continue to require a streamlining of government and what it delivers. \u201cThe general rule should be that government spending should boost growth and reduce poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsons added that President Jacob Zuma had recently warned that welfare payments could continue to grow out of proportion to tax revenues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere remains a clear and urgent choice for South Africa which is reflected in both the New Growth Path (NGP) and National Development Plan (NDP) roadmaps. Either strengthen public sector delivery, keeping government affordable and the tax burden reasonable or face a continued failure to ensure delivery, leading to rising costs, reductions in services and greater financing challenges,\u201d said Parsons.<\/p>\n
BUSA said it wanted to turn many more South Africans into a nation of victors over adversity and deprivation rather than victims trapped on welfare dependency.<\/p>\n
According to BUSA\u2019s impressions, corporate balance sheets were currently strong and clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is necessary to underpin the role of business and investor confidence in order to promote economic recovery,\u201d said Parsons. \u2013 BuaNews<\/p>\n
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Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) says it expects South Africa\u2019s economy to grow by 3% in 2012. Presenting BUSA\u2019s economic and business outlook for the country in 2012, BUSA Deputy CEO Raymond Parsons said looking at the present evidence, a 3% GDP trajectory though 2012 could be expected in a best case scenario. He said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-5908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"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\/5908","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}