{"id":93170,"date":"2025-11-19T18:54:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:59:54","slug":"good-news-about-south-africas-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy","title":{"rendered":"Good news about South Africa\u2019s economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje says there are many positive signs in the South African economy, which is a significant turning point for the country.<\/p>\n<p>He said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana\u2019s 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement was very positive.<\/p>\n<p>Godongwana tabled his medium-term budget on Wednesday, 12 November 2025, which showed an encouraging trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>He said that South Africa\u2019s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio will stabilise at 77.9% in the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time since the 2008 financial crisis that public debt will not grow as a percentage of GDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The government expects to achieve a primary budget surplus of R68.5 billion this year, which is projected to grow to R224 billion by 2028\/2029.<\/p>\n<p>The overall budget deficit is forecast to narrow from 4.5% of GDP in 2025\/2026 to 2.7% of GDP by 2028\/2029.<\/p>\n<p>This year, revenues are expected to exceed the budget estimates by R19.3 billion. Meanwhile, debt-service costs will be lower by R4.8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from encouraging hard numbers, South Africa was also removed from the Financial Action Task Force grey list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExiting the grey list enhances South Africa\u2019s attractiveness to investors and makes it easier to do business with us,\u201d Godongwana said.<\/p>\n<p>All these developments did not go unnoticed by the international investment and financial community.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, 14 November 2025, S&amp;P Global raised South Africa\u2019s foreign and local currency credit ratings.<\/p>\n<p>It also gave South Africa a positive outlook, reflecting the potential for further improvements in fiscal metrics and stabilisation of government debt.<\/p>\n<p><b>Frans Cronje\u2019s view on South Africa\u2019s economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Dr Frans Cronje<\/p>\n<p>Cronje told the State of the Nation podcast that the budget policy statement indicates that South Africa\u2019s fiscal position is well under control.<\/p>\n<p>However, he noted that the budget deficit is significantly higher than economic growth and that debt levels are much too high.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, there are positive developments. South Africa has run a primary budget surplus (before interest payments) for many years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means if you can sort out the debt, the country has more than enough money to run its operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother positive is that the minister could credibly say that the debt curve in South Africa has peaked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another positive sign, Cronje said, was that Godongwana\u2019s speech also contained a strong political statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the strongest political statement to date about the long-term sustainability of the government of national unity (GNU),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the global economic environment will give the South African Reserve Bank room to cut interest rates, which will bolster the local economy.<\/p>\n<p>Another positive factor is that South African bond rates are declining, which makes serving local debt more affordable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Finance Minister\u2019s message to the investment world is that they have South Africa\u2019s finances well under control,\u201d Cronje said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe financial foundation upon which we must build the South African economy is sound and well managed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said GNU sceptics should re-examine their scepticism following Godongwana\u2019s positive 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje says there are many positive signs in the South African economy, which is a significant turning point for the country. He said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana\u2019s 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement was very positive. Godongwana tabled his medium-term budget on Wednesday, 12 November 2025, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-93170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Good news about South Africa\u2019s economy - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje says there are many positive signs in the South African economy, which is ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good news about South Africa\u2019s economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje says there are many positive signs in the South African economy, which is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T18:54:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T18:59:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1763566152.346861.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Good news about South Africa\u2019s economy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-19T18:54:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-19T18:59:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\"},\"wordCount\":519,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1763566152.346861.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/good-news-about-south-africas-economy\",\"name\":\"Good news about South Africa\u2019s economy - 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