Madam Speaker, Minister Trevor Manuel has assured us that South Africa is not facing a recession. However, he did warn that growth would not be as high as had been predicted.
I think he indicated figures of between 3% to 3,5%. Yet when the United States, which is the biggest economy, shows just as much as a fraction of a decline in its growth, it fears that a recession may be looming. And, in fact, that is what is happening in the US right now. Although America has the money to bail out its faltering economy, there are clear signs that it is in a recession.
We have similar problems which impact on the growth of our economy. I accept that the Minister of Finance said that technically speaking we are not in a recession, because we have not had two quarters of negative growth in succession.
However, our unemployment rate is far worse than that of the USA, Germany or Japan. We have had a number of years of unemployment in South Africa. So in that regard we can say that we have been in a recession for several years.
Although it is said that we are not technically in recession and that we can weather the global economic crisis, we must ask the Minister and the Treasury to give us an idea at what expense this would be to the general public.
If the Treasury insists that our economy is not in a recession ... [Time expired.]