What is worrying, however, is that while the gap between South African and world growth hovered at around zero just before and during the global recession, this growth gap has gradually widened ever since.
It has averaged 1.8 percentage points in the last five years, stood at 2.9 in 2016, and – based on the IMF’s and the SARB’s forecasts – could increase to 3.0 in the current year.