Economy: Business confidence outlook ‘sobering’ – Brand SA

Weak business confidence during quarter four of the 2018/2019 financial year ‘can be attributed to … Eskom and load shedding; strike action in certain sectors; revelations on state capture from the Zondo Commission of Inquiry; as well as residual concerns regarding policy uncertainty – mainly due to the approaching national elections’. This is according to a Brand SA media statement issued yesterday, also noting ‘substantially’ lower levels of fundamental economic activity during the same period. Describing the outlook for 2019 as ‘sobering’, research general manager Petrus de Kock is concerned about its implications for the country’s reputation and investment drive, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.

The R15bn shortfall in revenue collection featured in preliminary results announced this week by the South African Revenue Service must still be subjected to ‘a detailed financial reconciliation and … final audit’ – but the trend is worrying. At a recent BRICS New Development Bank meeting in Cape Town, co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences Paul Romer told delegates that SA’s ‘extraordinary high unemployment levels, especially among young people’ are a ‘catastrophe’ for the country’s future (Engineering News). Referring to it as a ‘waste of human talent’ and a ‘crushing mistake’ on the part of those responsible, Romer did not elaborate.

Follow Pam Saxby on Twitter (@SaxbyPam)