Star 2024-11-28

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said South Africa’s economic outlook was improving and activity was recovering, driven by recovering domestic demand supported by renewed post-election confidence, improved power generation without load shedding since the end of March, and declining interest rates. An IMF team led by Delia Velculescu visited South Africa from November 11-25 to hold meetings with the economic authorities and other counterparts from the public and private sectors for the 2024 Article IV annual consultation. Following discussions on policies to ensure macroeconomic stability and the required structural reforms to durably lift potential growth, create jobs, and facilitate the transition to a greener economy, the IMF revised South Africa’s GDP growth projections from the 0.9% predicted at mid-year to 1.1% now. The IMF’s statement follows other positive outlooks for…

South African manufacturers’ confidence levels have lifted by a healthy eight points to reach 36 index points during the fourth quarter of this year, even though this remains below the 50-points expansion threshold. According to the Absa Manufacturing Survey for the fourth quarter of 2024, this was the highest level since the first quarter of 2022. This survey, released yesterday, shows that production, domestic and export sales, as well as new orders, have improved and recorded levels better than initially expected. While both domestic and export selling price inflation eased, the total cost of production per unit also declined significantly. The reduction in the raw material price per unit contributed the most to the overall production cost dropping sharply by 20 points, quarter-on-quarter. Justin Schmidt, the executive for the manufacturing…

Three large pathology companies, Ampath, PathCare and Lancet Laboratories, yesterday denied before the Competition Tribunal that they had charged excessive prices for COVID-19 PCR tests and instead asked that the allegations against them should be dropped. During the pandemic, the Competition Tribunal signed agreements with the three pathology firms to lower the price of a PCR test from R850 to R500 following an investigation into the prices by the Competition Commission. The Health Funders Association (HFA) and medical schemes have subsequently applied for an order from the competition authorities that the laboratory firms had engaged in excessive pricing through the pandemic. The HFA and medical schemes intend to make damages claims against the pathology companies in court. Legal counsel for the HFA and medical schemes argued that they were not…

Lamola says airline’s current strategy is marked by a conservative approach to expansion South African Airways (SAA) is positioning itself to be a conservative, lean and agile national carrier, but with big ambitions of growing its fleet of 16 aircraft to 43 over the next five years through a combination of savings, debt and strategic partnerships. This follows a remarkable financial turnaround, where the airline posted a net profit of R252 million for the 2022/23 financial year, significantly boosting total revenue by 183% from R2.0 billion to R5.7bn. SAA interim CEO John Lamola yesterday said SAA was committed to becoming a prudent and financially self-sufficient national carrier. Lamola said the airline’s current strategy was marked by a conservative approach to expansion. “There’s a very strong element of conservatism on the…

The uptake of smoke-free nicotine products is improving across Africa although regional policy positions in some countries such as South Africa are holding back speedy impacts in harm reduction associated with tobacco products. Companies such as British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International and others are moving away from combustible cigarettes and rolling out smoke-free nicotine products in markets such as South Africa. This comes as there are global efforts to reduce deaths related to tobacco use. While it has become “extremely challenging to stop tobacco use,” the “use of newer products to encourage users to move away from combustion tobacco” is gaining traction across the African continent, said Mercy Korir, a Kenyan medical expert, told harm reduction experts in Nairobi yesterday. However, there are regulatory hold-ups in regional countries such…

The Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (INSETA) is set to host its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday at the Sandton Convention Centre. The event will mark the fourth year of its 2019/20 to 2024/25 strategic plan, highlighting its achievements and unveiling future goals. INSETA has positioned itself as a critical driver of skills development in South Africa's insurance sector. The authority has supported 61 961 beneficiaries to date and aims to reach 80 000 by the end of the financial year. “INSETA has fundamentally repositioned itself as a catalyst and contributor to transformation through skills development within the financial and insurance sector,” said CEO Gugu Mkhize. Despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw performance dip to 72% in 2020/21, INSETA said in a statement it had…