Katlego Sekhu
On Business Update with Gugulethu Mfuphi, 959 Breakfast previewed the year ahead in terms of the economy of the country following a challenging 2023 for consumers.
Mfuphi notes that 2024 will continue to be tough, even though we are expecting an uptake in its economic performance.
She explained, “This will depend heavily on what we can do with the likes of Eskom and Transnet to fix our rail logistics as well as our power challenges. This also has a significant impact on the currency, which many have anticipated and has seen a lot of strength against the dollar in the last few weeks. However, there is still a heightened level of risk that we could see a weakening in our dollar-rand exchange rate.
“It is not looking too favorable at the moment. There are many thoughts and reviews as to what the next economic year might look like, but not too much confidence in terms of where we come from.”
In terms of food prices, Mfuphi pointed out that they will be ‘heavily” dependent on the weather. “Those are weather conditions where we have too much or too little rain, and that typically impacts our harvest and yield. We do need to be mindful of food prices, given that they have been exorbitantly high, especially in the last year,” she said in part.
Listen to the full discussion on the podcast.
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