SA economy stuck in first gear

26 August 2014 

The DA urges the Minister of Finance, Nhlahla Nene, as the head of the economics cluster, to engage in urgent and concerted efforts to turn the economy around through the National Development Plan. 

This follows StatsSA's announcement of feeble second quarter GDP growth of 0,6% - narrowly avoiding a technical recession.

The recent announcement means that our economy is still not growing anywhere near the levels that support the absorption of millions of South Africa's unemployed . 

At current levels, the seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the second quarter only returns the economy to its previous position at the beginning of 2014 - in essence, zero growth has been achieved in the first six months of this year. 

Labour intensive industries like mining and quarrying and the manufacturing industry shrank by -0,4 and -0,3 percentage points respectively - signalling poor prospects for job creation within these sectors. 

Faced with a stagnant economy, high unemployment, and relatively high inflation, South Africans face the most difficult economic conditions since 2009. 

Given the current trajectory, Government's projected 2.1% growth for the economy this year is very optimistic.

If we implement the NDP, we can start to turn the ship around. 

Government must address South Africa's precarious  state of labour relations, conduct a proper assessment of legislation and on-going activities with a view of ensuring laws and activities are aligned with the NDP and make it easy to create jobs by removing all job inhibiting red tape. 

The time has come to for the government to deal with economy head-on. 

Statement issued by Dr Dion George MP, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, August 26 2014

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