South Africa appears to be unwilling to implement meaningful economic policies.

This is according to Lutfey Siddiqi, visiting professor-in-practice at the London School of Economics (LSE), who was speaking in an interview with CNBC this week.

“South Africa, together with Turkey are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to policy credibility,” he said.

“I remember in December 2015, they had three finance ministers over a span over four days – so while we welcome the appointment of a new finance minister, credibility is not built in a day and that is something that they (South Africa) needs to be mindful of.

“Central Bank communication, transparency and policy direction are at this stage of the cycle a lot more important than all the economic factors that affect emerging markets.

“Credibility will be built based on action, not just on rhetoric,” he said.

Siddiqi argued that even though a country like Indonesia was in more a precarious economic position than many other emerging markets, its central bank’s response ‘feels like it’s part of a plan’ to improve the situation.

“Whereas in the case of South Africa — or Turkey certainly — it feels like (they are) kicking and screaming and dragging in change. Do they really want to do it or not?,” he said.

“Institutions are weaker, the tendency for populism is greater, and the structural issues around perceived corruption are greater.”

Siddiqi’s comments follow a tumultuous week for South Africa which saw the resignation of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, and an announcement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it had cut its global economic growth forecasts for the country in 2018 and 2019 by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7%.

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