New York Mercantile Exchange near-dated oil futures price has fallen below $50 per barrel and is currently trading at $49,13 per barrel, meaning that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) monetary policy committee meeting on December 8 and 9 could once again look at a further interest rate cut.

Structural changes that have been implemented over the past decade of freedom will support faster South African economic growth, raising growth from an average of only 1% in the decade prior to April 1994 to an average of 3% in the subsequent decade, with the prospect that growth will average more than 4% in the decade ahead, says Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel.

The current record high crude oil prices are unsustainable, according to economists surveyed by I-Net Bridge, but a return to last year’s Opec basket of seven crude oils’ average of $28,10 per barrel is also unlikely, mainly because of the depreciation of the dollar against other currencies.

China’s Three Gorges Project (TGP) on the Yangtze river will be the world’s largest hydro-electric plant when it is finally completed in 2009 after work started in 1993. Apart from the electricity generated, the TGP has two other main benefits: flood control and a higher carrying capacity for the Yangtze river.

The "official rate of interest" used by the tax authorities was cut by 50 basis points to 8,5% with immediate effect, the South African National Treasury said in a media statement on Wednesday. The cut followed the 50 basis-points reduction to 7,5% in the South African Reserve Bank’s repo rate, announced on August 12.