Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 88142, member: 27"] A measly 1.1% annual GDP growth has South Africa's biggest trade federation calling the entire economic model broken. Q4 2025 GDP snapshot [LIST] [*]Fourth-quarter expansion hit just 0.4%, deeply underwhelming. [*]Agriculture absolutely carried 2025 with 17.4% growth. [*]Manufacturing shrank while construction nosedived by 7.8%. [*]Five consecutive quarters of growth still feel sluggish. [/LIST] SAFTU tears into the numbers [LIST] [*]Zwelinzima Vavi called the government's 1.6% forecast delusional. [*]Holiday-season spending should have juiced Q4 way harder. [*]Raw-material exports basically ship jobs overseas, per SAFTU. [*]South Africa functions as a warehouse for foreign-made goods. [/LIST] Unemployment stays catastrophic [LIST] [*]The narrow jobless rate sat at 33.2% in early 2024. [*]Expanded unemployment clocks in roughly 10% higher than that. [*]SAFTU insists 6% annual growth is needed to dent it. [*]Gross fixed-capital formation contracted 2.5% through 2024. [/LIST] Historical context on growth woes [LIST] [*]Load-shedding hammered 2023 GDP down to a revised 0.6%. [*]Transnet's freight failures compounded logistical nightmares further. [*]No blackouts since March 2025 helped domestic demand recover. [*]Some forecasts peg 2026 growth between 1.5% and 2.0%. [/LIST] SAFTU's reform demands [LIST] [*]Local manufacturing investment tops their priority list outright. [*]R19.1 billion for unemployment relief got slammed as inadequate. [*]Inflation-adjusted cuts to that fund total about 5.5%. [*]Vavi wants a complete pivot away from raw-export dependency. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

Name