B2B Central

Professor Raymond Parsons

10 Feb 2023

Round-up: SONA 2023

By Staff Writer

The 2023 SONA address by President Cyril Ramaphosa gave a candid and realistic appraisal of a tough and challenging economic landscape.
08 Jun 2022

SA GDP: Economic production 'now virtually back' to pre-pandemic levels

By Staff Writer

South Africa's GDP grew 1.9% in the first quarter in quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted terms and by 3% year-on-year unadjusted in the first three months of the year.
25 Mar 2022

South Africa's future rate increases will inevitably begin to corrode consumer spending and disposable income, says Parsons

By Staff Writer

The latest MPC decision is the third successive increase since the SARB began its interest-raising cycle in November 2021 to deal with a deteriorating inflation outlook.
10 Jun 2021

SA’s more “liberal approach” to energy supply praised

By Staff Writer

In a surprise announcement at midday today, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act would be amended to increase the NERSA licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW.
13 Mar 2020

Covid-19 now poses ‘a clear and present danger’ to the SA economy

By Janice Roberts

Market trends and other economic data confirm that the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) now poses ‘a clear and present danger’ to the SA economy, even though only 24 cases have so far been reported here as positive.
31 Jan 2020

Today's implementation of Brexit and implications for SA

By Janice Roberts

Although the implementation of Brexit tonight obviously marks an historic fork in the road in the economic relations between the UK and the EU, not much will change in the immediate future.
20 Jan 2020

Q4 2019 Policy Uncertainty Index increases

By Janice Roberts

The NWU Business School’s Q4 2019 Policy Uncertainty Index (PUI) increased to 53.6 from 53.1 in 3Q 2019 (baseline 50), Professor Raymond Parsons said today. “Negative factors outweighed positive ones in the fourth quarter of 2019. Policy uncertainty therefore remained strongly elevated and stayed well in negative territory during this period.” He explained that global...
30 Dec 2019

SA's economic outlook for 2020

By Janice Roberts

NOTE OF COMMENT ON SOUTH AFRICA’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR 2020 BY PROF RAYMOND PARSONS, NWU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS. The combination of economic and political developments over the past twelve months in SA has generated particular interest in the outlook for the economy in 2020. What are some of the relevant factors to be taken into...
13 Dec 2019

Clear general election outcome in UK reduces policy uncertainty

By Janice Roberts

‘The outcome of the snap United Kingdom (UK) general election provides a strong political mandate for the now re-elected Conservative Party government to pass the necessary legislation through Parliament in time to leave the EU formally on January 31 and to initiate the first phase of Brexit. That’s the word from NWU Business School Economist,...
03 Dec 2019

Latest GDP figures show need for turnaround plan

By Janice Roberts

‘The worse-than-expected 3Q 2019 growth figures again emphasize the serious economic challenges faced by SA. This is according to NWU Business School Economist, Professor Raymond Parsons. Based on previous economic data the Reserve Bank, National Treasury, credit rating agencies and several private sector economists all had already further lowered their growth forecasts for 2019 to...
21 Nov 2019

MPC decision 'disappointing'

By Janice Roberts

“It is disappointing that the MPC majority view is unable to contemplate reducing the repo rate, although the space now clearly exists to act positively,” says NWU Business School Economist, Professor Raymond Parsons.
02 Nov 2019

Moody's decision means SA must now get its economic house in order

By Janice Roberts

Moody’s decision to reduce the outlook for its credit rating of the SA government from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ is not unexpected in the light of SA’s weak economy and deteriorating public finances. That’s the word from NWU Business School economist Professor Raymond Parsons. “The Moody’s review warns that, unless SA gets its economic house in...