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15 May 2012 03:02

South Africans dying younger, more likely to be black

A fascinating look at South Africa’s changing demographics.

South Africa has changed dramatically over the last 30 years or so. When I was a kid in the mid-80s, apartheid looked unstoppable, the country was just treading water economically, and ‘human rights for all’ was no more than a distant dream.

Today, South Africa is almost unrecognisable when compared with the country of my youth. Despite its seeming invincibility, apartheid had the grace to crumble under the weight of its own insanity in the 1990s, helped along by a number of visionary South Africans, and the Rainbow Nation went on to experience an unprecedented economic boom – years of unbroken growth (with the exception of the short 2009 recession) fuelled by the optimism, globalisation, and opening-up that the end of apartheid heralded.

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08 May 2012 02:49

How SA consumers are doing

The household debt situation is potentially risky; the job situation isn’t great either.

As we’ve often discussed, consumers are a very important part of the South African economy; according to the World Bank, household consumption expenditure accounted for about 57% of South Africa’s GDP in 2010. It’s therefore past time that we checked in with the South African household and try to gauge what kind of shape it’s in three years after the recession.

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01 May 2012 04:28

SA vs the world

How does SA compare: interest rates, inflation, growth etc.

South Africa is a regional economic powerhouse, and thanks to that and to its inclusion in the Brics grouping, the Rainbow Nation boxes well above its weight on the international stage, playing a prominent role in many multilateral organisations and speaking out on a number of global issues.

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24 April 2012 03:22

SA's small business problem

Why are SMMEs in SA struggling to establish a foothold?

Small businesses play a crucial role in any given economy. They are major job creators – in SA, it’s estimated that 68% of workers are employed by business with 50 or fewer employees – and they tend to be efficient and innovative, and thus to prod large businesses to improve their own operations, making the economy work better overall. And, of course, today’s small businesses are tomorrow’s corporate giants (think Facebook), so they offer a special set of opportunities for investors.

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17 April 2012 02:09

Interest rates are not enough

Highly indebted consumers mean flat rates aren’t enough.

Last week, the International Monetary Fund released two chapters of its latest World Economic Outlook. One of the chapters was of particular interest – chapter three, which looked at the role of household debt in prolonging recessions.The IMF’s research focused on advanced economies, but its key insights are nevertheless relevant to South Africa.

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