Report highlights how vulnerable the mining and tourism sectors are as Chinese imports and visitors dry up
Passengers arrives from Hong Kong at Cape Town International. Picture: SUNDAY TIMES/ESA ALEXANDER
About 18.5% of SA exports go to China, with mining commodities making up the majority — at around 86% — of total trade with the Asian country. “A Chinese economy with a weaker growth pace and slower metals production will have less demand for these minerals from SA. The listed shares of some of the world’s largest mining companies have already been hit by this outlook,” it said.
The second recession since President Cyril Ramaphosa came to power in 2018 poses more headaches for the reformist leader. The virus “will turn out to be a national crisis” and “it will have a huge impact ... on our economy which as we all know is in a very precarious situation”, he said when the first case was detected last week.The second-strongest economy in Africa behind Nigeria, SA is the world’s top producer of platinum and a leading supplier of gold, diamonds and other minerals.
While it is difficult to quantify the potential impact on the tourism industry as yet, Strategy& has looked at past pandemics such as swine flu, which caused a 15% drop in Chinese arrivals.
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