Introduction
The government’s policy response to a cooling economy has been to try to engineer a soft landing, with a mix of counter-cyclical measures to shore up growth. This includes a steady drawdown of international reserves to fund investment in State enterprises (particularly in energy). Plans also entail a massive expansion of borrowing in 2016- 2020, in order to further increase public investment in infrastructure and public services and in a bid to diversify the economy through industrialisation of the commodities base. It is also placing a growing emphasis on protectionist controls to favour local producers.