Ratings agency S&P believes SA's economic growth will expand by 2 percent this year.
S&P Global Ratings has revised its domestic economic growth forecasts for South Africa upwards, expecting economic growth to accelerate by 2 percent this year, and 2.1 percent next year.
S&P’s figures are higher than what the government has forecast. National Treasury projected economic growth of 1.5 percent this year, 1.8 percent next year, and 2.1 percent in 2020.
Gardner Rusike, S&P’s associate director, said at the S&P Global Annual Credit Seminar that growth in South Africa has largely been stunted by political infighting within the governing ANC, which has impacted the work of government and the implementation of policies, and also increased the level of political uncertainty.
S&P says that one of its key drivers for revising SA’s economic growth forecast is an improved 2018-19 national budget, which was tabled in February 2018. According to Rusike, the ratings agency belives that government finances are in a much better place now than they were in October 2017.
