KemetLeadsSouth Africa takes the SADC chair with regional trade faltering
South Africa takes the SADC chair with regional trade faltering
The news
At the 46th summit in Durban, Cyril Ramaphosa assumed the SADC chair pledging to lift intra-regional trade to 50% — while at home unemployment rose to 33.6% in the second quarter, with nearly half of young South Africans out of work.
The KemetLeads take
Steadier prices, broken jobs machine. Regional leadership means little if the anchor economy cannot put its own young people to work. The measure of South Africa's SADC year will not be communiqués — it will be factory shifts, in Gqeberha as much as Gaborone.
What to watch
The third-quarter jobs numbers in November, and whether the 50% intra-SADC trade target gets a date.
SourcesSADC Secretariat · Acceptance statement, DIRCO · Business Day, 14 Aug
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