The Senior Executive Forum, an exclusive forum for chief executive officers and other senior executives hosted a highly successful breakfast meeting at the Elangeni Hotel on the 25 May.
Co-ordinated by the KwaZulu-Natal Top Business Portfolio, Full Circle Communications and DRG Outsourcing, the quarterly event aims to allow senior executives to network with each other and listen to distinguished speakers give talks on subjects of high relevance to their work and their lives.
First National Bank sponsored the event and Cees Bruggemans, chief economist of FNB was the speaker.
Bruggemans gave an insightful report on the South African economy in relationship to current global economic conditions.
Of note is that at present South Africa's economy is recovering although tough times are still being experienced in many sectors. The overall view is that the local economy is being driven by income growth. The recent wage increases and labour gains have done much to bolster this growth. Increased household consumption is apparent in increasing motor vehicle sales and retail sector growth. The social safety net supplied by the government social grants is also a strong stabilising factor.
While South Africa saw much growth over the 2004-2010 period, the momentum could not be sustained and a break is now being experienced. This is however not terminal and a recovery will take place in the near future.
Our reality is that we are still part of an uncertain world and our growth is also very much dependent on whether the global conditions continue to favour our export prices. These uncertain conditions include factors such as rising inflation, monetary policy and debt, oil supply, and politics.
In spite of these uncertainties Bruggemans believes that there is a strong basis to state, "There is still a lot of growth out there and we are going to be the beneficiaries".
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