BUSINESS NEWS - The South African economy will take three to four years to get back to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Absa chief economist and head of research Jeff Gable.
This is a very different outlook to the global financial crisis in 2008/09, when it took the economy only five quarters to get back to where it was before that crisis – although it took half a decade to recover the jobs lost, he said.
Gable was speaking at a Ford SA industry update breakfast on Tuesday at which the motor manufacturer reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the national government’s Covid-19 initiatives, by donating R2.5 million to help fund the enhancement of the national Occupational Health Surveillance System (OHSS).
The OHSS, a programme implemented by the National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH), monitors workers in the public and private sectors using data supplied by employers on Covid-19 infections in the workplace under the direction of the Department of Employment and Labour.
This data, which is used to inform appropriate interventions and mitigate the spread of the virus, helps to identify industries and occupational groups at risk of infection and analyses the impact on industries and occupational groups.
