“It is evident that the global economy is strengthening, the South African economy is growing and the recession is waning. Domestic economic indicators are pointing upwards and the economic outlook is largely positive. Further encouraging are several of the Minister’s comments relating to the macroeconomic outlook, exchange controls, employment, taxes and infrastructure” said van der Haar.

“Employment growth is expected to strengthen on the back of continued improvement in business sentiment. As investment increases and recruitment policies and strategies are finalised, excess capacity will decline giving way to more recruitment and subsequent employment,” added van der Haar.

“Most encouraging was that Minister Gordhan gave back R8.1bn of tax relief to compensate for inflationary effects during the coming year and to counterbalance those inflationary effects that could not be accommodated during the 2010/11 fiscal. This could assist significantly with debt repayments thereby increasing disposable income and ultimately increase consumer spend. In general, when consumers spend businesses flourish. When businesses flourish, supplementary budget is spent on advertising and communications which translates into revenue and employment for the advertising and communications sector” concluded van der Haar.