South Africa is searching for higher economic growth in a global environment increasingly shaped by rising
nationalism, higher levels of trade protection and a fall-off in the effectiveness of monetary policy.According to
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), world growth is projected to slow fractionally from 3.2% in
2015 to 3.1% in 2016 before recovering modestly to 3.4% in 2017.The financial market’s initial reaction to the
shock Brexit vote on 23 June 2016 was, according to the IMF “reassuringly orderly”. This was probably
premised on the notion that the exit would be in name only and that most of the current trade and access
arrangements between the United Kingdom and the European Union would remain largely unchanged.
The IMF has revised Sub-Saharan African (SSA) growth down to 1.4% for 2016 and 2.9% for 2017.
Uncertainty in commodity exporting countries, especially in terms of policy, has caused investors to
withhold capital flows which have resulted in reductions in much needed portfolio flows.
