What a “stark” difference a few months can make in the life and finances of a country. At the tail-end of last year, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, sounded alarm bells about the possible deterioration in the fiscus to levels comparable to that of Argentina, the poster child of economic ruin over the past three decades.
This week’s budget speech should provide for surprisingly better headlines about the short-term state of the fiscus compared to previous expectations as higher growth from the bullish commodity markets boosts state coffers, making it unlikely that finance minister Tito Mboweni will have to increase taxes.
BLSA agrees with President Cyril Ramaphosa on his four overriding priorities: defeat Covid; accelerate the economic recovery; accelerate economic reform to drive inclusive growth; and fight corruption. A determined focus on those priorities will help to address an array of the country’s problems.
Delivering a state-of-the nation address when your country nears the 50,000-fatality mark from Covid-19 must rank as the most difficult that any modern-day South African president has had to do. The difficulties have been compounded by questions arising about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has slowed the rollout in SA. Under these conditions,…
WITH THE first batch of vaccinations arriving on our shores and the groundwork being laid by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his health ministry, for its rollout to health workers across the country, we can now begin to refocus on the economy.
The state of the nation addresses that President Cyril Ramaphosa has so far delivered have all had a few focus areas for his administration, particularly boosting confidence by rebuilding an ailing economy and governance in institutions that were at the centre of corruption.