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South Africa is resilient enough to weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as long as its policies are recalibrated toward economic growth once the crisis has passed, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“The country’s great strength is that it has very deep and liquid domestic capital markets relative to most other emerging market countries” and generates most of its national and rand funding, Abebe Aemro Selassie told reporters, director of the African department of the lender. Wednesday.
“South Africa has always had very good international access to the capital market,” and is not in talks with the Washington-based institution about financing, Selassie said.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has promoted the possibility of receiving assistance from the fund for the first time to deal with the consequences of the virus, sparking the anger of some senior officials in the African National Congress and their alliance partners, who they argue that this would undermine the sovereignty of the nation.
The country would only seek virus-related packages from international financial institutions rather than budget support that would likely require a structural adjustment program, Mboweni told reporters on Tuesday. The country is in talks with the World Bank over a $ 60 million package, he said.
The New Development Bank, which serves the so-called Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) also confirmed that it is in talks with the government to obtain a loan of up to $ 1 billion.
