THURSDAY, 5.00PM:
The South African government need not revise its growth estimates, despite last week’s market turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. Nor is there any question of revising its 4% budget deficit target “We don’t see the need for any panic in respect of the fiscal targets we have set,” he said.
While there has been relatively rather a lot of volatility on the stock exchange and in the bond market for reasons premised on the country’s sound fundamentals, the heat is not that great. “If you examine the strengthening after the shocks last week of the R150 [bond] which we use as a bellweather, or you look at the currency, the exchange rate, we don’t see the need to amend our [growth] forecasts,” he said.