Much more needed to secure SA’s economic turnaround – IRR

The recent improvement in sentiment about South Africa’s economic outlook should not be mistaken for a turnaround, according to the latest Blueprint for Growth paper from the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), launched at a webinar this morning.

The paper, Arming SA’s Pro-Growth Forces, makes the case for placing economic growth at the centre of public policy and outlines an overarching package of policy reforms aimed at putting South Africa onto a higher-growth path.

In his webinar discussion with IRR Projects and Publications Manager Terence Corrigan, IRR CEO and author of the paper Dr John Endres cautioned against celebrating South Africa’s recent growth performance. Endres noted that while some might view growth of around 1.4% as encouraging after years of stagnation, it remained far below what was needed to address unemployment and declining living standards.

Endres emphasised why economic growth mattered, pointing to South Africa’s long-term underperformance relative to the rest of the world. If global GDP per capita were normalised to one, South Africa’s GDP per capita would be shown to have steadily declined as a share of that benchmark over the past two decades. “We were at a 1:1 level in 2008,” he said, “but since then it has continually tracked down and is now 0.64.” This showed how SA had underperformed over the past 20 years.

Arming SA’s Pro-Growth Forces is the first instalment of the IRR’s 2026 Blueprint for Growth series. It provides the analytical foundation for the series and sets out why faster growth is essential, why South Africa has failed to achieve it, and what policy changes are required to reverse the trend.

According to the paper, meaningful growth will require scrapping existing policies that have failed to deliver growth while entrenching high unemployment. The IRR calls for these to be replaced by a set of practical reforms, such as freeing up the labour market, that are capable of boosting investment, expanding Gross Fixed Capital Formation, increasing competitiveness, and restoring confidence in the economy.

The report, along with a recording of this morning’s webinar, is available on the IRR’s website, here.

Media contact: Terence Corrigan IRR projects and publications manager Tel: 066 470 4456 Email: terence@irr.org.za 

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za