Assessing the impact of the unrest in South Africa

There is clearly a lot of uncertainty over how the protests in South Africa in recent days will develop but there are reasons to think that the impact on economic activity will be towards the milder end of the spectrum. Perhaps a bigger risk is that the protests signal broader discontent with the current weakness of the economy, limiting the government’s ability to push through austerity and put the public debt position back on to a sustainable path.