South Africa’s currency debate focuses on whether to emulate China and other predominantly East Asian countries by pegging the Rand. Import-competing interests, especially manufacturing companies and associated trade unions, plus industrial policy advocates in government advocate pegging the currency at ‘competitive’ levels. Many macroeconomists in the banking sector, Treasury, and South African Reserve Bank are wary of inflationary consequences.
Tutwa associates continue to participate in public forums on various topics.
Peter Draper recently participated in a preparatory conference for UNCTAD XIII, organized by the UNCTAD Secretariat in Geneva.
In the wake of the World Trade Organization’s members’ failure to conclude the Doha round, attention is returning again to the relationships between the WTO and preferential trade arrangements. The old ‘stumbling block’ versus ‘building block’ paradigm is widely regarded as having been transcended, with the relative virtues of PTAs now recognised, albeit in qualified fashion.
India, Brazil and South Africa are major emerging powers, significant in their regional and global contexts. On some levels they face similar development challenges. Unlike China, their democracies impose particular constraints on the way they address those challenges, but also afford opportunities not open to China. In a world in which fascination with Chinese success seems to increasingly overwhelm other vantage points this ‘democracy dividend’ is seldom appreciated and frequently over-looked. Continue reading
Interest in the BRICS summit process is running high, as several recent posts on this site attest. For more expert analysis and commentary from Tutwa associates consult Peter Draper’s interview with the World Economic Forum, available as a podcast on their website. The interview includes insights from several leading South Africans and Indian commentators. Also check out their collection of short blogs on the BRICS summit including Peter Drapers – but hurry as they will be replaced fast. And read Mzukisi Qobo’s latest Business Day column, in which he reflects on corruption as an unwelcome thread that unites the BRICS. Finally, if you want to follow the strategic evolution of the BRICS in more detail, then request membership of the BRICS Strategic Issues Group on Linkedin, a discussion only forum recently established and moderated by Peter Draper.