President Cyril Ramaphosa travels to Brazil for a two-day state visit on March 9 and 10 at the invitation of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The visit is expected to focus on strengthening bilateral relations and co-operation on multilateral issues.
It comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions and debate about Global South alignment. The visit may include discussions on trade, diplomacy and multilateral co-operation.
“Bilateral trade between South Africa and Brazil reached R32.5bn in 2025, with South African exports amounting to R5.2bn and imports from Brazil totalling about R27.3bn. South Africa’s top exports to Brazil are chemicals, mineral products, machinery, iron and steel, and vehicles. Brazilian exports to South Africa include mineral products, live animals, machinery, vegetables, and iron and steel products,” the Presidency said.
“The Sacu–Mercosur preferential trade agreement (PTA) has supported a steady growth of South African exports to Brazil and has opened opportunities for preferential market access for 1,500 product lines. The visit will provide a platform to exchange notes on how best to maximise the opportunities presented by the PTA and explore mechanisms to enhance and diversify trade between the two countries."
The fallout from the conflict in the Middle East between the US and Israel and Iran will continue to be a flashpoint in this week’s political calendar. Many shipping companies are avoiding the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea routes, forcing vessels to travel around the Cape of Good Hope. More vessels sailing past South Africa could increase the strategic importance of the Cape route.
Ramaphosa has previously called for dialogue and a de-escalation of the conflict which threatens the global economy. The president also said South Africa is in a position to mediate in the conflict if required.
Parliament continues processing the 2026 national budget, with committees finalising reports on the fiscal framework and revenue proposals. This is the stage where parliament decides whether to endorse the government’s deficit and spending path for the year.
Provincial governments begin tabling their 2026 provincial budgets this week, with finance MECs presenting spending plans for the coming fiscal year, with budgets scheduled for Gauteng, the North West, the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo on March 10, followed by Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape on March 11, the Western Cape on March 12, and the Free State on March 13.
On Tuesday, Stats SA is scheduled to release the Q4 2025 data for unemployment.
“We forecast modestly faster growth in Q4, driven by robust activity in the services sector, which benefited from healthy consumer demand, stronger credit demand and surging trading volumes on financial markets,” Nedbank said.
“In contrast, activity in most of the primary and secondary sectors remained under pressure. Altogether, we forecast real GDP to have risen slightly from 0.5% in Q3 to 0.6% in Q4, translating into growth of 1.4% in 2025,” according to Nedbank’s expectations.
“We expect growth to moderate from Q3’s 0.5% quarter-on-quarter expansion,” said the Bureau for Economic Research. “Our published forecast is for growth of 0.3%, though the latest high-frequency indicators point to meaningful downside risks, with activity currently tracking closer to flat on the quarter.”
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