There will be much interest when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan addresses parliament on how major projects announced by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation speech will be financed.

BoE Private Clients political analyst JP Landman said it is going to be especially interesting to learn whether the five large projects announced by Zuma will be allocated additional funding.

"Will these announcements increase the amount of R802-billion, which amounts to roughly 7.5% of GDP, that was allocated for capital expenditure in the medium-term budget in October?" Landman asked.

The question arises at the same time as indicators show that government expenditure has started to slow.

According to the latest measure of monthly economic activity in the five biggest provinces, state spending slowed towards the end of last year. The average December increase, after inflation, was only 6%.

Economist Mike Schussler said the government has to pre-empt changes in global economic activity by adjusting the budget.

Landman said that, if South Africa achieved the 2.7% growth expected for this year, 200000 jobs would be created by the end of the year.

"Though that will take us close to the all-time high of December 2008, it means that it would have taken us almost four-and-a-half years to recover from the 2009 recession.

"Furthermore, much of job growth depends on both tangible and intangible matters - such as confidence, growth prospects, developments in Europe and concrete investment."