Economist

The Economist is responsible for macroeconomic analysis and report writing, econometric modelling, research and cost benefit analysis of key macroeconomic variables in support of infrastructure development. The Economist will report to the Senior Economist and is responsible for providing support to the Senior and Chief Economist. The position is within a small highly productive team that requires agility and fast turnover of information.

**Key Responsibilities**:
**Technical outputs**
1. Conduct macroeconomic analysis, modelling and forecasting to inform decisions made by the DBSA.
2. Provide cutting edge analytical support to the Chief and Senior Economist and DBSA leadership through
timely and rigorous economic intelligence work.
3. Provide comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and macroeconomic projections of the most
widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economies and operations.
4. Provide support and input to investment and technical assistance project teams on macro-economic issues
related to country/regional context, macroeconomic trends, country, region or sector -specific analysis.
5. Participate in the design, preparation and dissemination of analytical economic work and reporting, including economic updates, macroeconomic modelling/forecasting and various briefs.
6. Contribute to the interpretation of analytical findings, formulation of key messages, and identification of
national economic policy implications and recommendations that are supported by the evidence.
7. Provide data driven economic analysis in the form of presentations, memos, reports, notes and analytical
findings in support of contributing to the business of the DBSA.
8. Conducts and communicates complex market and economic outlook analysis and research on infrastructure
development on a variety of projects.
9. Keep abreast of latest research and innovative solutions pertaining to the development agenda and
10. Contribute to building synergies and cooperation across functions in the DBSA.

**Key Measures of Outputs**
1. Produce quality monthly and quarterly economic reports.
2. Prepare presentations that can serve at Board and Executive level.
3. Update and maintain the DBSA macroeconomic database.
4. Provide inputs and assumptions for the macroeconometric model.
5. Responsible for updating, maintaining and running the quarterly DBSA macroeconometric model in
collaboration with the Senior Economist.
6. Contribute to at least one special economic note per quarter.
7. Contribute to quick turnaround high quality outputs as requested by the Chief Economist and Senior
Economist from time to time.
8. Contribute to the developmental agenda of the DBSA through sectoral analysis.
9. Economic contributions to the corporate plan, CE reports, strategic planning and annual reports.

**Key Internal Liaison Relationships**
- Chief Economist
- Economists, Knowledge Management and Research, Strategy
- CEO & Executive Management - DBSA Management
- All Divisions
- Board and Board Sub-committees

**Key External Liaison Relationships**
- National Treasury
- Government and other Stakeholders
- DFI’s, Knowledge partners, Think tanks, local/international organisations

**Expertise & Technical Competencies**:
**Minimum Requirements**:
1. A Master's degree in macroeconomics, econometrics, development economics, applied statistics or any
related discipline.
2. Five to ten years economist experience in a major financial, public or international institution.
4. Demonstrated research track record, deep understanding of the function of the South African economy and
policy.
5. Proven expertise in macro-economic analysis and forecasting with a focus on empirical methods.
6. Demonstrated knowledge of broad analytical techniques, statistics, econometrics as well as mathematical
and operations research tools, such as EViews and R.
7. Sound knowledge and good grasp of the infrastructure landscape, financial markets political economics,
macroeconomics as well as socio-economic, development issues, challenges and opportunities in South
African and the rest of Africa.
8. Knowledge of the financial and regulatory environments within relevant sector and/or geography.
9. Proven track record of leading and preparing good quality reports, documents and presentations for Exco,
Board and high-level stakeholders.

**Technical Competencies**:
**1. Economic Research**
a. Ability to construct macroeconomic models using sophisticated econometric techniques.
b. Ability to initiate innovative research ideas and techniques in order to improve policy making content
of development research.
c. Ability to analyse and interpret countries policy documents and macroeconomic accounts with the
purpose to distil policy and financing requirements.
d. Ability to take initiative and be self-driven. Work well in a small team in the Economics unit, but also
be able to work closely with the KMR and Strategy team.
e. Ability to provide completed final work ou