South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Lesetja Kganyago has urged SA to be less risk-averse and take greater risks to support economic growth.
Kganyago welcomed the government’s decision to partner with the private sector to implement growth-enhancing structural reforms but said there is a need for greater urgency.
He noted that living standards are now lower than they were in the early 2000s.
He was addressing delegates at the Principal and Vice-Chancellor Public Lecture and Leadership Engagement at the University of SA (UNISA) in Pretoria.
Kganyago says while a strong private sector has helped sustain the economy, investment remains below the level needed to drive growth. He added that although SA, like many emerging markets, has shown resilience, economic growth remains subdued.
“Remember, we have a large and sophisticated private sector in SA, and that’s the reason we are still much richer than our neighbours, even if we don’t grow. But that private sector has been in survival mode. Investment has stalled. Firms are not pouring their energies into growing their SA business; the ones that are here are treading water, and the others are in places where things work, like Australia or Canada or Dubai,” Kganyago says.
—SABC—
