The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) January World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update once again makes it sorely apparent that South Africa is simply not keeping pace with the rest of Africa when it comes to growth.

The IMF has lowered its 2013 growth forecast for the country to 2.8%, having projected 3% in October. It calculates that Africa’s largest economy grew by only 2.3% in 2012, as opposed to the 2.6% level it had expected previously, while making a modest 0.3% upward revision to 4.1% to its 2014 growth projection.

In October, South Africa’s Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, lowered government’s own growth estimate for 2012 to 2.5% from the 2.7% figure forecast in the February Budget. He projected that the economy would grow by 3% in 2013 and by 3.8% in 2014.

Gordhan will have an opportunity to update his forecasts on February 27, when he delivers the 2013 Budget, and it will be interesting to see the direction that any revisions take.

In contrast to South Africa’s more-than-cool performance, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to remain a growth ‘hot spot’. The IMF has maintained its 5.8% growth forecast for the region for 2013 and calculates that the territory expanded by 4.8% in 2012 – slightly below its October estimate of 5%.

“Activity in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to remain robust, with a rebound from flood-related output disruptions in Nigeria contri-buting to an acceleration in overall growth in the region in 2013,” the WEO states.

Overall, it expects growth in emerging-market and developing economies to build to 5.5% in 2013, but says that continued weakness in advanced economies will weigh on external demand. These weaknesses are also expected to negatively affect the terms of trade for commodity exporters.

The context in which these forecasts are being made remains challenging and difficult to read. The IMF expects global growth to reach 3.5% in 2013, up from 3.2% in 2012, with emerging markets, developing countries and the US predicted to emerge as the main sources of growth for the year.

But the upturn is likely to be more gradual than had been projected in October, when the IMF estimated that the world economy would expand by 3.6% in 2013.

It warns that the euro area continues to pose a big downside risk to the global outlook. It has lowered its near-term outlook for the euro area and is expecting economic activity to contract by 0.2% in 2013, instead of expanding by 0.2%.

Growth in the US is forecast to average 2% in 2013, while the IMF has sustained its expectations that Japan will grow by 1.2% in 2013, despite renewed recessionary conditions. The Chinese economy is expected to expand by 8.2% in 2013, having grown by 7.8% in 2012.

But whichever way one looks at it, South Africa remains a growth ‘cold spot’ – a situation that will not be helped by recent political statements and social ructions.

South Africans should also draw solace from the fact that many other large economies are struggling. This country’s extreme levels of unemployment and inequality demand a response that is confidence building, growth fuelling and job creating – not one that drains entrepreneurs and businesspeople of all enthusiasm.

It’s again time to place the 7% aspiration at the centre of the national agenda and to finally work out the trade-offs needed to reach that goal.