Load shedding, ports crisis ‘stumbling blocks’ to economic growth
Shannon Bold, a senior economist at the Bureau for Economic Research, says South Africa's economy narrowly managed to avoid a technical recession in the last quarter of 2023.
The latest figures from Stats SA show that the economy grew by 0.1% between October and December.
READ:Marginal growth sees SA economy escape recession
Bold says the current trajectory may improve if Transnet clears the backlog at the country’s ports.
"The economy avoided a technical recession as we had anticipated. However, we did expect slightly stronger growth in the fourth quarter.”
She says load shedding remains a stumbling block to economic growth.
During the October to December period, Eskom implemented higher stages of load shedding.
"Although, so far, we have had better load shedding compared to the beginning of last year, it is still higher than all the years before then. That is one of the constraints holding us back in 2024.”
