The South African economy is well protected against the current global economic turmoil, but will not escape the impact entirely, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday.

Briefing the media after Cabinet's regular meeting on Wednesday, he said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel had made an extensive presentation to the meeting on the issue.

That economic analysis was the subject of SA Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni's meeting taking place on Thursday and would also be part of Manuel's presentation on the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in Parliament on 21 October.

However, Cabinet believed South Africa's economy was showing signs of resilience in many respects.

The banking sector, largely because of government regulations put into place, had played a role in protecting the SA economy.

These included exchange control measures still in place.

"But again, as the global economy goes through this turmoil and the GDP growth in many developed countries shrinks, chances are that the impact will be felt by many developing nations, including South Africa.

"We remain confident that we have measures that can, to some extent, shield us from this global turmoil, but at the end of the day, there's no way we can say our economy will not feel the impact of what is taking place globally," Maseko said.

A more definitive statement would be forthcoming from Mboweni and Manuel.

Sapa