Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba, will soon meet with business leaders to find ways of working together to achieve improved growth, said National Treasury in a statement today (Wednesday).
This follows news by Statistics South Africa that South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2017 putting the country into a technical recession.
“The current growth rate, if sustained, will lead to a further decline in GDP per capita and revenue, risking the sustainability of our fiscal framework and more importantly undermining the delivery of social services,” said Gigaba, pointing out that the current state of the economy put more pressure on government, business, labour and society to intensify its growth programmes and improve confidence as a matter of urgency.
He added that despite the “worse than expected” contraction there were green shoots that South Africa could leverage to boost its own economic growth outlook.
These include stabilising commodity prices, more favourable climate conditions, reliable electricity supply and less volatile labour relations.
