S.Africa rate increases not impacted growth - Manuel

(Reuters) - Higher interest rates in South Africa have had little impact on economic growth and should not result in a big loss of output, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.

South Africa's central bank raised its repo rate by 50 basis points to 9.5 percent earlier this month, resuming an upward cycle after lifting it 200 basis points between June and December last year to tame rising inflationary pressures, and high consumer spending.


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S.Africa extends tax amnesty for small business

(Reuters) - South African small businesses were on Thursday granted a one-month extension to admit previous tax violations or to register for tax in an amnesty offered by the National Treasury.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the one-month extension to June 30, 2007, was necessary after some organisations, including accountants and taxi owners, said they had missed the original cut-off.


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Change skewed world order, says S.Africa's Manuel

(Reuters) - The world's poorer nations could disengage from globalisation and multilateral institutions if the current imperfect world order continues, South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday.

"If we cannot fix what is so obviously imperfect, then the losers from globalisation will either shout more loudly, or they will disengage from the process," he said in a prepared speech ahead of this week's summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations.


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S.Africa economy grows but constraints lurk - Manuel

(Reuters) - South Africa must create more jobs and boost exports if it is to sustain growth in its economy which has expanded by around five percent a year in the last three years, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday.

In a speech prepared for a bankers' conference, Manuel said increased confidence in the continent's biggest economy had improved its balance of payments position, with 144 billion rand worth of capital inflows in 2006.


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