Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is set to meet with the business community on Tuesday after‚ at the last minute‚ postponing his much anticipated media briefing scheduled for Friday to outline government’s roadmap out of a sluggish economy.
Treasury said the media briefing was postponed to later this week as Gigaba had to meet with the ruling party’s leadership and then meet with the “Economic Cluster on Tuesday with the objective of developing a comprehensive response programme to the economic challenges”.
The country’s economy has suffered one setback after the other‚ with Fitch Ratings agency downgrading the country to “junk” status (non-investment grade) in April.
Last week South Africa moved into a technical recession with the reported 0.7% decrease in GDP during the first quarter of 2017 against the backdrop of a 0.3% contraction in the first quarter of 2016.
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Janine Myburgh‚ president of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and Industry‚ said they called Treasury to find out about the meeting with the business sector but were told Gigaba was meeting with “one particular” business grouping but were not informed who exactly the minister was meeting with.
She said they found this unfortunate given the country’s current negative economic status.
“We would like to meet with the minister to discuss serious challenges on the economy...the country’s downgrading and the recession so that we get to understand government’s plans to get us out of the situation. This is all reason enough for the minister to meet each and every role player in the economy‚” she said.
Attempts to reach Gigaba’s spokesperson‚ Mayihlome Tshwete‚ were unsuccessful.
Gigaba to meet business sector against backdrop of economic meltdown
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is set to meet with the business community on Tuesday after‚ at the last minute‚ postponing his much anticipated media briefing scheduled for Friday to outline government’s roadmap out of a sluggish economy.
Treasury said the media briefing was postponed to later this week as Gigaba had to meet with the ruling party’s leadership and then meet with the “Economic Cluster on Tuesday with the objective of developing a comprehensive response programme to the economic challenges”.
The country’s economy has suffered one setback after the other‚ with Fitch Ratings agency downgrading the country to “junk” status (non-investment grade) in April.
Last week South Africa moved into a technical recession with the reported 0.7% decrease in GDP during the first quarter of 2017 against the backdrop of a 0.3% contraction in the first quarter of 2016.
Janine Myburgh‚ president of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and Industry‚ said they called Treasury to find out about the meeting with the business sector but were told Gigaba was meeting with “one particular” business grouping but were not informed who exactly the minister was meeting with.
She said they found this unfortunate given the country’s current negative economic status.
“We would like to meet with the minister to discuss serious challenges on the economy...the country’s downgrading and the recession so that we get to understand government’s plans to get us out of the situation. This is all reason enough for the minister to meet each and every role player in the economy‚” she said.
Attempts to reach Gigaba’s spokesperson‚ Mayihlome Tshwete‚ were unsuccessful.
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