Executive Summary
In the following pages we will analyze the place of South Africa in International Trade. In order to do so we will analyze the background of the country, develop PESTLE analysis, look at the balance of payments as well as trade balance, examine exchange trade policy and growth rate of the economy. In conclusion we will provide forecast for country’s development.
Today South Africa's trade and industrial policy is moving away from a highly protected, inward looking economy towards an internationally competitive economy, capitalizing on its competitive and comparative advantages.
From the period of apartheid, it has made great progress in dismantling its old economic system, which was based on import substitution, high tariffs and subsidies, anticompetitive behavior, and extensive government intervention in the economy. The leadership has moved to reduce the government's role in the economy and to promote private sector investment and competition. It has significantly reduced tariffs and exports subsidies, loosened exchange controls, cut the secondary tax on corporate dividends, and improved enforcement of intellectual property laws.
The macro-economic policy includes 5 macro objectives: * Economic growth * Increasing employment * A positive trade balance (increasing exports above imports) * Combating inflation * Equity
The achievement of these objectives is very much important to the South African economy, the effects of the failure to achieve these objectives will lead to social, politically and economically instabilities. Over the past years the South African government and the reserve bank SARB have managed to achieve the five macro objectives effectively thus why it is ranked among the fast developing nations.
South Africa is