Sub-Saharan African countries have increased their funding needs by and large, and the potential for needs to increase is high as countries try to sustain spending even as growth, terms of trade and financing costs deteriorate. South Africa has not been immune to these challenges.
With world demand sluggish and commodity prices declining, we have seen a loss of 9 per cent in our terms of trade between the third quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2015. The current-account deficit widened to as high as 5,8 per cent of GDP in 2013.