South Africa: Selected Issues
IMF Staff Country Reports, July 7, 2016
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- South Africa: Selected Issues
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Bibliographic details
- Published: July 7, 2016
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475568615.002
Summary and key findings
- This paper describes South Africa’s economic development and challenges.
- South Africa has made considerable economic and social progress over the past two decades, but faces substantial challenges.
- Global transitions—China’s slowdown and rebalancing, weak commodity prices, and U.S. monetary policy normalization—are taking a heavy toll on South Africa.
- Growth and employment, which were already low, are faltering and continue to underperform peer countries.
- Vulnerabilities remain elevated and have increased in the real and fiscal sectors.
- Boosting growth and job creation, thus reducing extremely high unemployment and inequality, and promoting social transformation remain South Africa’s key challenges.
Major themes and areas of analysis
- Global shocks and external environment
- China’s slowdown and rebalancing.
- Weak commodity prices.
- U.S. monetary policy normalization.
- Domestic macroeconomic performance
- Low and faltering growth.
- Underperformance relative to peer countries on growth and employment.
- Vulnerabilities
- Elevated and increasing vulnerabilities in the real sector.
- Elevated and increasing vulnerabilities in the fiscal sector.
- Social and structural challenges
- Extremely high unemployment.
- High inequality.
- Need for social transformation.
Subjects and keywords covered
- Subjects: Balance of payments, Banking, Capital flows, Commodity prices, Credit, Financial institutions, Foreign exchange, Mining sector, Money, Prices, Sovereign bonds
- Keywords: Africa, Capital flows, China, China GDP growth, commodity export price, commodity export price shock, Commodity prices, CR, Credit, debt, export commodity price, Global, growth slowdown, ISCR, oil imports, rating downgrade, Sovereign bonds
Content in this bundle
- South Africa: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 16/218, June 16, 2016