Laubscher named Reuters Economist of the Year 2007

Pieter Laubscher of the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) was named South Africa’s Reuters Economist of the Year for 2007 on Wednesday for most accurately predicting key domestic economic indicators in that year.

Laubscher, chief economist at the BER, a business cycle research group linked to the University of Stellenbosch, holds a masters degree in economics from the same university. He served as senior economist from 1995 to 2005.

The BER also produces a series of surveys, including a quarterly report on inflation expectations used by the central bank when deliberating on interest rates.

Analysts were ranked according to the accuracy of their contributions to the Reuters Econometer, a monthly confidence barometer derived from forecasts for six major South African economic indicators and overall consistency of contributions.

About 25 economists from banks, fund managers, think-tanks and other corporations took part in the competition, now in its eighth year.—Reuters