Global growth hit a soft patch at the start of 2015. In the first quarter it slowed to 2.0 percent, quarter on quarter (q/q) annualized, from 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The slowdown was reflected in a decline in global manufacturing activity, on the back of weak industrial...

Conditions in global financial markets have eased since mid-2012, reflecting improvements in fiscal sustainability and the establishment of mutual support mechanisms in the European Union (EU), even as the global economic recovery remains fragile and susceptible to downside risks. South Africa's...

The global economic recovery remains uneven, as growth in the United States is gaining momentum but appears to be at risk of stalling in the Euro Area and Japan. U.S. growth is expected to gain pace over the rest of the year and into 2015 as employment prospects boost real income growth and...

In its National Development Plan 2030 and its New Growth Path (2011), South Africa identifies the export sector as an engine for faster, more inclusive, and job-intensive growth. The National Development Plan is targeting export volume growth of 6 percent a year, to achieve an annual increase in...

Section one provides an economic update and assesses the challenges and near-term prospects facing the South African economy. In particular, it looks at the implications for South Africa of the resurgence of uncertainty in global financial markets, the surge in capital flows to safe-haven...