Real Economy Yearbook 2021: Overcoming the Covid crisis

How to recover from the global Covid-19 pandemic continues to occupy the minds of business leaders and policymakers. There is growing consensus that it is simply not good enough for economies to ‘bounce back’ and return to their previous development pathways. ‘Bouncing forward’, however, will require companies and governments to adopt strategies and policies that begin to repair the health, supply-chain, social, environmental and climate fault lines that have been distressingly exposed during the pandemic. For countries, such as South Africa, where these fault lines were already deeper and wider before Covid than in most other countries, the nature of the recovery will be as important as its pace. This Real Economy Yearbook points to the fact that across just about every sector featured, from automotive to mining, there is an acceptance that a different approach is needed if the foundations are to be laid for more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable industries. For South Africa, these transitions represent not only a great risk but also a tremendous opportunity.