Real Economy Year Book 2014

There have been some improvements in global economic conditions over the past few months, with the US set to grow at a better pace in 2014 than has been the case in the years following the global economic crisis. Few economic commentators are anticipating a hard landing for the Chinese economy, although it remains an outside risk, while Europe appears set to continue its slow recovery. The outlook for much of the rest of Africa, meanwhile, is for continued strength and resilience, although this growth is off a low base and is being achieved amid concerns about whether the benefits are being shared widely enough. By contrast, economic prospects for South Africa are poor, with some commentators warning that Africa’s most developed – albeit no longer the biggest – economy is running a very real risk of retreating into recession again for the first time since 2009. This edition evaluates the performance and outlook for a variety of sectors, including automotive, construction, electricity, road and rail, steel, water, coal, gold, iron-ore and platinum. The Real Economy Year Book has also been divided into individual reports under the aforementioned sectors under the banner Real Economy Insight. They are available on Creamer Media’s Research Channel Africa website and Creamer Media’s store.