WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-05-20 Time: 11:00:16 Posted By: Jan
[I don’t believe this. Jan]
The future for economic growth in South Africa looks promising, South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday.
“The challenge is to further increase the growth performance of the domestic economy. The foundation has been provided. So the future looks promising,” said an upbeat Mboweni.
He was speaking at the opening of the two-day Euromoney Conference, “South Africa ten years on – Empowerment, Finance, Trade and Investment,” at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
He said South Africa’s real economic growth doubled from an average annual rate of 1,5 percent during the 1980s to about three percent between 1994 and 2003.
‘The future looks promising’
“In addition, the average growth in real gross national income per capita, an indicator of living standards, improved from a negative figure of 1,1 percent per annum during the 1980s to a positive figure of 0,8 percent between 1994 and 2003,” he said.
At the end of 2002, the level of foreign investment in South Africa amounted to R736-billion, he said.
Mboweni provided a brief synopsis of the government’s macro-economic strategy, touching on global integration, fiscal and monetary policy, and the financial sector.
He said that after the transition in 1994, the government committed itself to a policy of import liberalisation and agreed to import tariff reductions as part of a broader trade reform programme.
In addition, measures were also taken to promote competition, and industrial policy was adjusted to enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises in export markets.
‘We could easily qualify to be part of the European Union’
On the fiscal policy side, the government placed considerable emphasis on restoring fiscal stability, wanting first to create stable macro-economic conditions as a “precondition” for sustained growth and employment creation.
By the 2001/02 fiscal year, the government’s financial austerity had reduced fiscal deficit before borrowing and debt repayments to 1,5 percent of gross domestic product.
“We could easily qualify to be part of the European Union. Our economy is doing much better than that of Germany and France,” quipped Mboweni to the approximately 300 delegates.
On monetary policy, Mboweni said the objective at the beginning of the 1990s was to reduce the rate of inflation; to maintain positive real interests rates; and to develop sound financial infrastructure, among others.
“Despite problems we’ve had, inflation is behaving and the CPIX (consumer price index excluding home loans) is down to 4,4 percent in March 2004,” he said.
Touching on the financial sector, Mboweni noted changes on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with, for example, the value of shares being traded increasing from R62-billion in 1994 to R752-billion in 2003.
Other financial sector developments included a financial sector Black Economic Empowerment Charter and increased importance attached to providing access to funding for small, medium and micro-enterprises.
The conference, being held to coincide with the 10th anniversary of democracy in the country, will concentrate on the change in focus from macro-economic stability to the micro-economic imbalances that still limit economic growth. – Sapa
Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&ar…/p>