Related Articles
Top Stories
May 21 2012 09:02
The government was warned in 2010 that collection costs for the controversial e-toll system would be much higher than a petrol levy or tax, a report says.
May 21 2012 17:30
Mark Zuckerberg's fortune dwindled by nearly $2bnto $18.7bn within minutes as trading began again in Facebook shares – which promptly plunged by nearly $5.
May 20 2012 12:10
The state’s intervention team in Limpopo has scrapped a R320m textbook tender controversially awarded to a firm controlled by former government officials.
Johannesburg - South Africa’s economic growth is “certainly going to be below 3%” this year due to the impact of a slowdown in the eurozone economies, Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday.
“Europe is a factor. Europe as a whole is a major trading partner for South Africa, and for the last 12 to 15 months has had a major impact on our manufacturing industry and other export sectors as well,” he said in a transcript of an interview with CNN in Davos.
The government’s current official growth forecast is 3.4%. Gordhan will release updated forecasts in his February 22 budget.
Gordhan’s Davos comments bring his projections in line with the South African Reserve Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which this month slashed their forecasts to 2.8% and 2.5 % respectively.
The government has said it needs gross domestic product growth of 7.0% to make a dent in unemployment, which stands at a quarter of the labour force.
Gordhan said President
Jacob Zuma could announce measures aimed at boosting employment in his February 9 state of the nation address.
“Issues like infrastructure and others are going to play a key part as we go forward,” he said.