JOHANNESBURG: The IMF has urged more “decisive” reforms to boost private investment in South Africa, forecasting economic growth to remain sluggish for a sixth consecutive year in 2020.

The African continent’s most industrialised country has been dogged by high and rising debt, low growth and record-high unemployment over the last decade.

“A more decisive app­roach to reform is urgently needed,” an IMF team said at the end of their visit.

“Impediments to growth have to be removed, vulnerabilities addressed, and policy buffers rebuilt,” it said.

“Expediting structural reform implementation is the only way to sustainably boost private investment and inclusion,” it said.

The statement issued late Monday said while South Africa’s potential was still largely untapped, its recent poor economic performance pointed to “rising risks”.

South Africa narrowly avoided a second recession in two years when the economy grew a surprising 3.1 per cent in the three months to end June, according to the statistics agency.

One of the biggest risks to the economy according to pundits has been posed by the embattled state power company Eskom, which has a $30bn debt bill despite multiple bailouts from the state.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2019