Economic Crisis: Reserve Bank On How The Third Covid-19 Wave Will Impact The Economy

CURRENT projections from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) are that the South African economy will get back to pre-Covid levels by 2022.

However, as the country enters a third wave of infections and parts of the economy are forced to limit activity, this projection might prove to be optimistic.

This was the sentiment of Dr Rashaad Kassim, deputy governor of the SARB, who was speaking at the recent Nedgroup Investments annual treasurer’s conference.

“Our projections for 2021 is that our economy will recover about 4%, which is not yet at pre-Covid levels. We only expect that to happen in 2022. Normalisation is contingent on the pace at which we think the economy will recover, and we might be forced to reassess this view at out next meeting,” he said.

Kassim said that the long-term nature of the pandemic has taken everyone by surprise and given cause to expect some