The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for South Africa’s growth rate to 0.3% for 2023, up from the 0.1% it predicted in April.
- The increase is due to the resilience of the services sector in the first quarter of the year.
- Despite the upward revision, the IMF still expects growth to be lower than in 2022 due to power shortages.
- The IMF has slightly lowered its growth forecast for South Africa for 2024 to 1.7%.
- The IMF has also revised its global growth forecast for 2023 upward to 5.2%.
- The IMF cited the successful vaccine distribution and the increase in fiscal spending by advanced economies as reasons for the global growth forecast increase.
- The IMF warned that risks remain, including the possibility of new variants of the coronavirus and inflationary pressures.
- The South African Reserve Bank held the repo rate steady at 8.25% during its July policy meeting.