S. Africa needs faster growth rate to address challenges: business entity

JOHANNESBURG, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) on Tuesday said South Africa needs faster economic growth rate to create jobs and address challenges.

Tanya Cohen, CEO of BUSA, said this while commenting on the latest batch of data. Statistics South Africa on Tuesday announced that the country's economic growth in the fourth quarter was 1.4 percent, contributing to an overall growth of 0.8 percent in 2018.

She said that BUSA welcomes the growth but is not happy with the low annual growth rate, with contractions in mining, construction and gross fixed capital formation.

"The annual growth rate remains off target for the country's goals of creating a sustainable, competitive economy and of ensuring that we generate jobs. It is a symptom of the overall structure of the economy, which remains concentrated, is not dynamic enough and agile," she said.

Cohen said, "Economic growth is a key prerequisite for South Africa improving its sovereign credit ratings, as well as retaining its only investment grade rating."

"There are encouraging signs, so BUSA remains cautiously optimistic that, with the right policy mix, the alleviation of uncertainty, reforms in state-owned entities, particularly Eskom, together with the political will to implement economic reforms, that South Africa can turn a corner," she added.

BUSA, formed in 2003, is a non-profit organization representing cross-cutting organized business interests in South Africa. It comprises about 35 organizational members.