Cape Town - South Africa needs to grow its economy at more than 5% a year to be able to create jobs, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.
In his state-of-the-nation address, delivered at Parliament, he told MPs the weaker exchange rate would make government's infrastructure programme more expensive.
"We are still going through a difficult period. Developments in the United States economy have led to a rapid depreciation in the emerging market currencies, including the rand."
Last year, the rand depreciated by 17.6% against the US dollar.
"The weaker exchange rate poses a significant risk to inflation, and will also make our infrastructure programme more expensive.
"However, export companies, particularly in the manufacturing sector, should take advantage of the weaker rand and the stronger global recovery."
Zuma said the country would be able to cope with "this period of turbulence". It had done so before in the past five years.
"We will, in fact, emerge stronger if we do the right things. We have to work together as government, business and labour to grow our economy at rates that are above five percent to be able to create the jobs we need."