Nicola Viegi on the South African economic response to the Coronavirus: policies and protection

8 April 2020

Economic Theme: Growth, Development & Structural Constraints, Macroeconomic Policy Coordination, Public Finance

Keyword: Efficiency, Financial Markets, fiscal policy, Healthcare, Infrastructure, lockdown, macroeconomics, Other Macroeconomic Variables, Policy, productivity, public sector, Risk and Uncertainty, South Africa

Nicola Viegi, Deputy Director of ERSA, talks with Margaux G on the South African economic response to the Coronavirus. Health intervention and household support is the first priority, but policies should also protect the integrity of supply chains and the integrity of labour contracts, even with temporary reductions of wages and public guarantees. The partial freeze of the economy allows speeding up infrastructure maintenance and renewal. The bureaucracy around business licensing and exporting should be simplified to the point of irrelevance. To finance these interventions, South Africa needs instruments that are efficient and coherent with its long term objectives of growth and resilience.

Economic Research Southern Africa

Nicola Viegi on the South African economic response to the Coronavirus: policies and protection

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The beat used in this production, called ‘Resolutions’, is royalty free and can be found at freebeats.io and the photo is by Fusion Medical Animation and can be found on Unsplash.