SA confident China will steer towards growth

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Pretoria – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Chinese economy slowdown is a concern for all and it will no doubt have an impact on the South African economy. 

“China has emerged as our largest trading partner. We sell lots of commodities to China and as they slowdown their demand for commodities also become lesser and lesser - so it does have an impact on us.

“Like many other economies in the world, we are beginning to feel that impact,” said the Deputy President during a question and answer session with the Japanese National Press Club in Tokyo on Tuesday.

He is in Japan on an official visit to promote South Africa as a preferred destination for foreign direct investment and trade. 

South Africa’s economic sector ministers would have to sit down and discuss precisely how the country should respond to the situation and come up with strategies.

“But then again, China's economy, like any other economy, will go through ups and downs. All economies are like that and have always been like that throughout history. Our own economy is on a downward slope now, but it will resurge, it will go up again as it has always done in the past.

“Economic activity goes through slumps and they go up again and we have confidence in the resurgence of the Chinese economy,” he said.

He added that South Africa had great confidence in the Chinese government's ability to manage their economy back to growth. – SAnews.gov.za