Ramaphoria not helping economy

GDP figures to be released this week are expected to show very little growth, The Sunday Times has reported.

While the more positive sentiment that has followed Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise to the Presidency may have sparked renewed interest among investors, mergers and acquisitions lawyer Kevin Cron says that this interest is “still quite cautious”.

Manufacturing is one of several sectors that have not yet shown growth, sparking speculation that many businesses are still waiting to see what kind of polices the Ramaphosa administration puts in place before investing.

Momentum Investments has predicted muted growth for the first quarter of 2018. They say it will probably be at around 0.5%. Meanwhile, Kruger has forecast growth of 2.1%, down from 3.1% in the first quarter of 2017, and NKC African Economics has put their money on 1.9% growth for the whole year of 2018.

GDP data for the first quarter of 2018 will be available to the public from Tuesday.

The economy expanded by 1.3% last year. South Africa’s GDP per capita, though, was seen as low when compared to the population growth rate.