Nhlanhla Nene says SA’s recession can be beaten
The finance minister says he is confident economic structural reform and measures to stimulate the economy will help pull SA out of the woods
Finance minister Nhlanha Nene says he is due to present economic structural reforms and a stimulus package that he believes will pull the economy out of a technical recession.This is after it emerged that the economy had slipped into its first technical recession in nine years, following Statistics SA’s announcement on Tuesday that the country’s GDP shrank 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018. The GDP drop followed a revised fall of 2.6% in the first quarter of 2018.Nene said that while the government was disappointed by the latest economic figures‚ he was confident the economic structural reforms and measures to stimulate the economy — due to be tabled in parliament in October — would help pull SA out of the woods. The medium-term budget policy statement will outline the government’s economic blueprint and spending plans for the next three years.Nene also conceded that this year’s VAT increase had taken money out of the pockets of citizens‚ with a decline in household consumption cit...
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