Craig Blumenthal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBlumenthal said that the landscape for businesses in 2025 is likely to be a wild ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa faces real growth issues, and the country’s laws, policies and red tape make driving investment and opening businesses a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current geopolitical landscape\u2014with United States President Donald Trump pushing a global trade war and taking aim at South Africa specifically\u2014is adding to the entrenched woes the country faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country is grappling with high unemployment and a strained job market, and growth prospects remain slim to stagnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While improved, economic growth is still projected to linger at its low base and far from the 3% needed to make a marked shift in the trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current projections for growth in 2025 are pinned at around 1.5%, with President Cyril Ramaphosa aiming for the loftier 3% mark, citing government reforms and public-private partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, given the country’s track record with reforms, institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are not as optimistic that this high target will be hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“2025 will prove to be interesting and, in my view, unpredictable,” Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“On the one hand, there is the positive business sentiment in South Africa attributable to the GNU and its pro-business constituents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Unfortunately, South Africa now faces great challenges in the form of American President Donald Trump announcing a halt in aid and trade with South Africa,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The knock-on effect to the economy and American businesses trading in South Africa may be dire, the expert noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“On the other hand, this does open up a number of trading opportunities with South Africa\u2019s BRICS partners, particularly China, to step in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, with the year already off to a turbulent start, only time will tell how things will eventually end up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Numerous businesses closed their doors in South Africa last year, and 2025 is geared up to be another rollercoaster ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[13405,21762,3729,1809],"class_list":["post-812323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bureau-for-economic-research","tag-craig-blumenthal","tag-liquidation","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812323"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812920,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812323\/revisions\/812920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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