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May 30, 2007:
Gauteng's construction and peripheral industries are set to experience an 'explosion' never seen before in South Africa in the coming years, according to Standard Bank chief economist Goolam Ballim.
He said on Tuesday that approximately R1.2 trillion was expected to flow through these sectors and their extended supply chains - a sharp contrast to the R700m that was spent during the past three years.
He bases this on the performance of the Gauteng Business Barometer (GBB), a unique index that measures Gauteng's economic activity on a monthly basis, which revealed an especially robust construction industry in April, with activity levels remaining nearly 20% higher than in the same month last year.
"It also places into perspective the contribution of the 2010 Soccer World Cup of between R50bn and R60bn to South Africa's gross domestic product," Ballim said.
The R1.2 trillion represents a composite figure which includes activity in the extended supply chain of the construction industry, in the residential and commercial fields.
"April was probably the weakest barometer we have seen since we launched in June last year," said T-Sec economist Mike Schüssler. "The main reason for this is the negative impact of higher interest rates and inflation. Implementation of the eNaTIS system (the national traffic computer system) also has an impact. The effect is more severe than we thought would be the case, four or five months ago.
"The economic sectors that performed worse month on month and year on year were the mining and trade sectors. The trade sector, which includes retailers, wholesalers and tourism operators were hit by the effects of the eNaTIS system, resulting in 6.2% decrease in motor vehicle sales."
