KnysnaThe biggest risks to South Africa right now: Reserve Bank – Knysna https://showme.co.za/knysna Knysna, South Africa for all your local and tourism information; from accommodation to events, entertainment, attractions and news - ShowMe Knysna | T Feed Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:20:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://showme.co.za/knysna/?p=58415 The biggest risks to South Africa right now: Reserve Bank https://showme.co.za/knysna/news/business-news/the-biggest-risks-to-south-africa-right-now-reserve-bank/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 07:43:15 +0000 Over the medium-term, the pace of South Africa’s recovery will be effected not only by weak demand but also by more structural...]]> Over the medium-term, the pace of South Africa’s recovery will be effected not only by weak demand but also by more structural problems, says the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

In a report on Tuesday (6 October), the SARB said that two areas stand out: electricity shortages and the country’s fiscal situation.

South Africa has suffered from periodic electricity shortages since 2007. While these appeared to ease following the 2009 crisis, this effect was achieved by weaker-than-expected economic growth, together with a ‘keep the lights on at all costs’ strategy, which succeeded by deferring maintenance and therefore increasing the fragility of the system, the SARB said.

Load shedding resumed in 2015 and has persisted since, with 2020 having already become the worst-ever year in terms of total gigawatt-hours shed, passing the 2019 record on 13 August.

“Although electricity demand collapsed under the initial lockdown, and some capacity was opportunistically taken off-line for maintenance, the increase in unplanned maintenance lasted less than a month, affecting at its peak an extra 10% of generating capacity.

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