BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– The domestic economy is estimated to have grown by 0.4 per cent in 2022 from 1.2 per cent prior on account of sluggishness observed in agriculture and agro-processing subsectors, mainly the sugar industry resulting from unfavourable weather conditions, arson attacks, and labour industrial action.
This was mentioned by the Governor of the Central Bank of Eswatini Phil Mnisi in his monetary policy statement.
Mnisi said the economy is forecasted to rebound and grow by 4.5 percent in 2023 on account of broad-based recovery in all sectors.
Overall inflation slowed down to 5.6 percent in December 2022 from 5.8 per cent in the previous month.
The lower headline inflation was due to a lower rate of change in price indices for; transport, which decreased from seven per cent in November 2022 to 6.1 per cent in December; recreation and culture, which decreased from 2.4 per cent in November 2022 to 1.8 per cent in December 2022.
“The Bank maintained its inflation forecasts at 5.5 per cent for 2023 whilst the forecasts for 2024 were marginally reviewed up to 5.2 per cent (from five per cent). Inflationary risks to the outlook remain elevated due to a high inflation outlook in South Africa which would transmit to domestic inflation through imports, weaker Rand outlook, high oil prices and other domestic administered price increases,” he said.
In addition to that, he said reflecting an increase of 1.1 per cent over the month. The month-on-month rise was a result of improvements in credit to households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) and business.
“In contrast, credit to other (unclassified) sectors of the economy receded over the review month. Credit extended to households and NPISH grew by 2.6 per cent in November 2022 from a decline of 0.2 per cent the previous month to E8.1 billion whilst credit extended to other sectors of the domestic economy regressed by 6.0 per cent month-on-month to settle at E678.8 million at the end of November 2022. “Credit extended to businesses amounted to E8.4 billion at the end of November 2022, depicting a modest increase of 0.2 per cent from the previous month,” he said.
