SA’s economy ‘unlikely' to grow faster than 1% this year
An economist says despite a slight rebound in the second quarter, South Africa's economy is unlikely to grow faster than one percent this year.
StatsSA announced on Tuesday that the economy expanded by 0.8% between April and June.
The growth was driven largely by gains in manufacturing and mining, which rose by 1,8 percent and 3,7 percent, respectively.
Chief Economist at the Efficient Group, Dawie Roodt, says the pace of growth is still far too slow to make a real difference.
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" 0.8% rate of economic growth is really weak. We need to grow the economy much, much faster. So I'm afraid this means that unemployment and poverty are likely to keep on going up, and it seems to me as if the economy is unlikely to grow at a rate faster than 1% for the full year."
He believes the full impact of the 30% US tariffs, imposed on South African products and goods, will be felt in the third quarter.
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" I think that the effect of the tariffs in the third quarter will be more severe; it will be fully felt, while in the second quarter, the full impact was not yet felt.
"With this kind of rate of economic growth, we are probably looking at an economic growth for the year that is probably going to be just below 1% or so."
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