While South Africa\u2019s economy is on a downward slope now, it will resurge and \u201cgo up as it has always done in the past\u201d, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists in Tokyo on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa, who is leading a delegation of government and business leaders on a trip to Japan, told the Japanese National Press Club that the Chinese economy slowdown is a concern for all economies and \u201cno doubt it has an impact and will have an impact on the South African economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s economy is battling on all fronts: GDP contracted by 1.3% in the second quarter of 2015 and the rand hit a low of R14\/$ this week (at 12:00 it was trading at R13.14\/$), egged on by market turmoil in China.<\/p>\n
While Eskom has not enforced load shedding for the past 17 days, the 99 days of load shedding it had implemented in 2015 has caused manufacturing and mining output to decrease, StatsSA figures show.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa, who political analysts see as a possible successor to President Jacob Zuma, said South Africa\u2019s leaders had confidence in government’s ability to manage the country’s economy to go on the up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cEconomic activity is cyclical, it goes up and down, but right now we are confident we will keep steady, we will manage the slump down as we move on to higher levels of growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Confidence in China<\/strong><\/p>\n The impact of China\u2019s economic slowdown has had a major impact on South Africa\u2019s market.<\/p>\n \u201cChina has emerged as our largest trading partner, we sell lots of commodities to China and as they slow down, their demand for commodities also become lesser and lesser,\u201d said Ramaphosa, who led a similar delegation to China in July. “So it does have an impact on us.”<\/p>\n \u201cWe have great confidence in the Chinese government’s ability to manage that economy, to manage it back to growth and back to life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cLike many other economies in the world, we are beginning to feel that impact,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously our economic sector ministers have to sit down and discuss precisely how we should respond to this.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be able to find solutions and come up with some strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n News24<\/a><\/p>\n Why President Zuma is wrong on the economy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n South Africans are taking home better salaries<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on South Africa<\/h3>\n