Bank penetration increased from 67% in 2012 to 75% in 2013, with an additional 3.5m people having access to formal banking services. The rollout of the South African Social Security Agency – adding 1.9m people – spurred much of this growth. Of the 16m South Africans who receive social grants, 93% are now registered on the new social security system, which requires a bank...
Stoking job creation in any country is a tricky thing, and South Africa is no exception, as the government faces an uphill battle in transforming what 20 years ago was a lopsided, closed and exclusionary system into an inclusive economy. The task is daunting. Unemployment ticked up to 25.5% at the end of the first half of 2014, and youth unemployment is estimated to be double...
The South African economy grappled with headwinds in early 2014, although it did avoid a recession in the second quarter of the year. The country’s long-term fundamentals remain fairly attractive, but the new cabinet still faced a tricky job of stimulating growth over the remainder of the year. The economy grew 0.6% in the second quarter of 2014, after shrinking by an...
As with many emerging markets, small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) make up a large proportion of South Africa’s private sector. According to the government’s economic blueprint, the National Development Plan, 90% of planned new jobs will be created by SMEs by 2030. To enable this, the government has rolled out a new department charged with aiding SME activity, the...
Africa’s second-biggest economy and by far its most globally integrated in terms of capital and trade flows, South Africa has had to navigate challenging waters in recent years. The economy has come a long way since apartheid ended 20 years ago, with significant improvements in both productivity and capacity – and a GDP that is now 2.5 times larger – but domestic and exogenous...
On April 27, 2014, South Africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the country’s first multiracial and fully democratic elections, a momentous occasion that signalled the full end of apartheid and the foundation of the modern democratic state. In 1994, newspapers around the world printed headline photos of the long queues that people waited in simply to cast their first ballot...
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