Cabinet has called on business‚ labour and society generally to partner with government “as a matter of urgency” to arrest the decline in economic growth.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba plans to meet with business leaders to formulate strategies to counter the recession and achieve inclusive growth.

Cabinet’s call was made in the wake of this week’s revelation that gross domestic product contracted by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2017‚ which cabinet said was worse than expected and significantly lower than the 1.3% projected for 2017 in the budget review.

At a post-cabinet media briefing Thursday‚ Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said it was urgent that business confidence was improved and growth programmes intensified “so as to arrest the decline and set the economy on a higher trajectory“.

IN FULL: President Jacob Zuma - the recession PresidentSave SA‚ a group formed to oppose President Jacob Zuma’s rule‚ on Wednesday pointed to the latest economic data as another sign of the president’s failure. 

“There are green shoots that the country can leverage to boost its own economic growth outlook. These include improving global growth‚ stabilising commodity prices‚ more favourable climate conditions‚ reliable electricity supply and less volatile labour relations‚” Dlodlo said.

Partnerships with the private sector and labour were also necessary to address unemployment and the downgrades by credit ratings agencies.