Johannesburg - The World Bank estimates that South Africa's economy grew 4.6 percent this year. And it predicts growth will slow to less than 4 percent next year.
The figures appear in Global Economic Prospects: 2007, published on the bank's website yesterday.
Projections are built on an analysis of short-term prospects and the estimate may be on the low side because it would have been based on figures that have been revised upwards.
On November 29 Statistics SA published benchmarking revisions to figures on gross domestic product (GDP). These put growth in the first half of this year at 4.4 percent rather than 3.8 percent. Growth last year was revised up to 5.1 percent from the 4.9 percent estimate published in February. In 2004 it was 4.8 percent, up from 4.5 percent; and in 2003 3.1 percent, up from 3 percent.
Jac Laubscher, a Sanlam group economist, believes the World Bank prediction is too pessimistic - his estimate for next year is 4.3 percent.
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