SA ECONOMY IS ON THE REBOUND, SAYS BANKSERVAFRICA

SOUTH African growth indicators for

April saw the highest and fastest growth on record, signalling a strong economic bounce back to pre-Covid levels, according to the BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (Beti) for April.

The Beti increased by 25.9 percent year-on-year in real terms, boosted by current higher commodity prices.

The headline Beti is a reflection of the economy’s recorded changes on an annual basis. However, with the lockdown impact from April 2020 distorting the number somewhat, the short-term variations were important to observe, BankservAfrica cautioned. Economist Mike Schüssler and BankservAfrica’s Head of Stakeholder Engagements Shergeran Naidoo said yesterday that while the index was encouraging, true growth still remained elusive. “On a monthly level, the Beti improved by 2.3 percent. This is the strongest since February 2021; the quarter-on-quarter change was

2.7 percent,” Naidoo said. The April Beti showed the economy was experiencing a massive economic bounce back that would remain for as long as low rates and government deficit spending keeps money flowing through the economy. | Banele Ginindza