Bank of America’s wealth management division Merrill Lynch has said that South Africa has one of the world’s most promising ten-year economic outlooks of all the EMEA countries.

Alongside Saudi Arabia and Turkey, South Africa looks set to enjoy long-term growth over the next decade. Merrill Lynch suggests a rate of 4.2%, putting it considerably higher than the rest of the EMEA area (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) which will have growth of between 3% and 4%.

Merrill Lynch is the largest brokerage in the world, with $2.2 trillion in client assets and fifteen thousand financial advisers. It ceased to exist as a financial entity in its own right back in 2008 when it was bought up by the Bank of America. It has divisions globally, and the EMEA region includes 32 cities in 23 countries in three continents.

There’s been a lot going on in South Africa to boost growth and to cultivate a richer, stronger economy. Government policy has – and will continue to – encourage the creation of jobs. The government has also placed an emphasis on the building and maintenance of modern infrastructure which will speed the country’s development. High speed internet projects are connecting remote parts of the country and are making business much more viable in some areas.

The idea in South Africa has been to make the consumer growth, which has up until now been the preserve of the middle classes, become attainable by the lower socio-economic groups in the country. Merrill Lynch estimate that the rate of growth could accelerate to five percent by 2016 if enough financial commitments are made to infrastructure projects, and if there is a marked increase in consumer spending.

And the bank also suggested that if “tough” decisions are made soon, then South Africa’s economic outlook could be even better. Six percent growth is attainable, they say, although rolling out a national health service (NHI) is going to be a “headwind” to financial growth of this sort, even though the changes will probably take place over a period of at least fifteen years.

Other headwinds to growth, as Merrill Lynch puts it, might include the skills gap. Merrill Lynch support what the South African government is doing, which is alleviating the skills gap with skilled immigrant workers. This is a “short-medium” term process which will bridge the gap. Labour and product market reform are hot on the lips of economic analysts whose worries are that South Africa’s growth could drop back down to four percent – in line with the rest of the Europe, Middle East and Africa area.

Merrill Lynch’s observations and predictions are in line with a consensus within the country that the economic outlook is good. Although the rest of the world has a lot to deal with in terms of the recession, South Africa – alongside Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are succeeding where others are failing. A similar pattern can be seen throughout Africa, where many countries are thriving in a global economic situation which is crippling nations in continental Europe.