Star SW-2021-03-31

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@in.co.za THE BANK OF America (BofA) has warned that the ongoing energy crisis constituted the most serious risks to South Africa’s economic outlook in the medium term. BofA yesterday said Eskom’s electricity supply challenges could delay the country’s economic rebound in the next three years in spite of a faster recovery expected in 2021. The bank said its outlook ahead was of a 3.5 percent consensus growth this year. BofA raised its 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 3.8 percent from 2.9 percent while maintaining its outlook for 2022 at 2 percent. BofA’s head of South Africa research Paul Steegers said they were cautiously optimistic about South Africa’s output this year, but medium-term outlook was faced with headwinds. “Despite the upgrade, we acknowledge…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za UNEMPLOYMENT in the country eased slightly in the fourth quarter as 76 000 jobs were created following the further lifting lockdown restrictions during the period. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that total employment increased 0.8 percent quarter-on-quarter to 9.64 million from 9.56 million in the third quarter. The Quarterly Employment Statistics survey attributed the movement to employment increases in the trade, community services and business services industries. However, most new jobs were part-time due to seasonal factors, supported by the increase in demand in the run- up to and during the festive season. Part-time jobs within the trade sector grew by 54 000 in the form of the total number of 87 000 part-time jobs increases. StatsSA said the electricity…

SOUTH Africa recorded foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of R16 billion in the fourth quarter from outflows of R12.2bn in the third, the central bank said yesterday. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its Quarterly Bulletin that the inflows in the latest quarter were caused by non-resident parent entities increasing equity investments and granting loans to domestic subsidiaries. The country saw FDI inflows of R51.1bn for all of last year, down from inflows of R74bn in 2019. Portfolio investments, reflecting a record of buying and selling of securities such as bonds and shares, recorded inflows of R24.1bn in the October to December quarter compared with outflows of R39.5bn the quarter before. Annual portfolio outflows, however, were at R159.3bn, against inflows of R87.5bn in 2019. South Africa is…

XPATWEB’S Critical Skills Survey 2020/21 showed 77 percent of organisations were struggling to recruit and obtain critical skills in South Africa for their local and cross-border operations. A further 76 percent further confirmed that an international search would assist them in meeting business objectives,” Xpatweb MD Marisa Jacobs said in a statement yesterday. According to the latest survey, the top ten skills businesses were struggling to recruit include engineers (18 percent), ICT (13 percent); foreign language speakers (10 percent); media and marketing specialists (9 percent); artisans (8 percent); C-suite executives (7 percent); senior financial executives (6 percent); health professions and related clinical sciences (5 percent); science professionals (4 percent) and accounting (1 percent). The usinesses indicating that engineers were difficult to recruit rose to 18 percent from…

All THREE major commercial property sectors – retail, industrial and office – remained oversupplied in the first quarter of 2021, although noticeably less in the industrial property market, according to FNB’s Property Broker Survey. Brokers in the office and retail property markets perceived, on average, a rise in average time of properties on the market prior to sales, with a slightly declining average time on market bias only seen in the industrial property sector, FNB Commercial Property Finance Sector Strategist John Loos said in the survey yesterday. The broker group perception was tilted strongly towards the existence of an oversupply, and this was most severely the case in the office property market. As many as 96.6 percent of respondents in the office sector pointed to oversupply, 90 percent…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa last night avoided a total ban of alcohol sales in the country during the Easter weekend following meetings with stakeholders but imposed restrictions on off-site consumption of liquor. Ramaphosa evaded what the industry had touted as a possible 11-day ban effective Thursday but imposed a 4-day ban from Good Friday to Easter Monday. Ramaphosa said other measures such as the midnight curfew, maximum number of people at funerals and interprovincial travel would remain unchanged. In spite of the relatively low transmission levels, Ramaphosa said the government felt that it needed to take a stricter approach against alcohol consumption. For the past two weeks, the number of new cases has remained relatively stable at around 1 200 new cases per day in spite of…