Don’t be caught unaware – Andrew le Roux, Financial Mail Budget 2018
Corporate leaders need to formulate strategies to anticipate and deal with potential shocks.
Constrained financial resources and increased needs such as housing, university fees and national health care mean the private and public sectors need to unify behind a strategy to aggressively drive economic growth.
Amidst a low-growth environment, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan kept SA on a prudent fiscal management path by pulling a number of tax levers.
With many indicators of economic development in SA falling short of its debt peer group, broad political/institutional stability and macro policy continuity remain key in preserving SA’s investment grade status. As such, all eyes will be on government’s ability to stay the course on sound fiscal management in the upcoming national budget to be tabled by National Treasury on February 22nd.
The tumultuous events at the end of last year have brought the stark realities facing our nation into sharp focus. In facing the possibility of a ratings downgrade to sub-investment grade, the health of our economy is threatened. And socially, the reconciliatory rainbow nation narrative requires significantly more attention to build social cohesion.
Since January 2016, government has left an indelible message that it is ‘open for business’, and has demonstrated a renewed determination and political will to fix the economy – a political will to do everything in its power to spark the economy onto a growth trajectory.
It’s undeniable that the Africa Rising narrative has lost momentum. It was all the rage a short while back at G-20 summits and in South African boardrooms, but many now have moved on – either as a result of short attention spans, or from disillusionment with some of the harsh realities that lay beneath the sweeping positive vision.
There is little doubt that South Africa faces a myriad of challenges constraining the country’s growth potential and negatively impacting on the general well-being of its citizens. Foremost amongst these are high unemployment, inadequate education and a deteriorating country debt profile.
With an economically challenging year ahead and a possible recession, South Africans from all walks of life will have to tighten their belts to weather the storm. The mass market will be particularly hard hit.
The United Nations Development Programme released the new Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015 with the aim to address global poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change by 2030. These seventeen goals, set globally, still need to be localised to be set according to our circumstances and most pressing needs.
The National Budget in a glance.