I am an Economics Student at Cal-Polytechnic University.
I have been tasked with doing a short presentation on the economic climate down there. There is lots of info on the web but I would like to hear Issues from the "Man on the street".
Thanks in Advance.

Rob
Opportunitycost

Economy=dismal

Rider: Before I get slaughtered by the likes of Allan, let me point out that my vantage point is agriculture and that it is not necessarily valid for all other sectors. The government will tell you that the economy is in great shape with a positive growth rate of about 3% (during the 80's and even beyond we had a negative growth rate (sanctions)). It is also claimed that we have great fiscal discipline. Personally I doubt many of the figures, but then again, I am merely a man in the street.
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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

cjm

I'd hate to be known as someone who goes around biting peoples heads off for no apparant reason.

Although I don't doubt the economic statistics as you do (since they are confirmed by other reputable sources not only government), I agree with you when you suggest that there are very few noticeable developments to the ordinary man on the streets. Especially outside of Gauteng.

However, from my perspective I wouldn't quite describe the economy as dismal.

Hi, glad to hear that you only bite off heads for sound reasons!! Anyway, is'nt economics supposed to be a dismal science?

I doubt the economic figures for the simple reason that they don't seem to reflect what is going on in the financial pages or around where I live. I would really like to know which sector of the SA economy is responsible for that growth and whether it is not just a matter of bringing in figures for the informal sector.
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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

Since my previous post it has been reported that

(a) economists are revising their growth figures downward (to below 3%)

(b) the authorities are holding emergency meetings to stabilise the value of the Rand

(c) Mboweni (Governor of the Reserve Bank) is c@#$%ing on the banks for not lowering their interest rates as decreed by His Majesty.

(d) Mboweni has also discovered that the economists are not doing their research thoroughly enough - exactly my point!! He, however, is probably expecting them to paint a more rosy picture of the s*&t the government is dropping us in.
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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

Personally I have not been to Gauteng for a long time. However, my brother has been there recently and he confirms your observations particularly as regards Pretoria. He could not believe the general level of affluence and the spending spree everybody seems to be on!

In keeping with my usual caustic outlook on life in SA, I would wager that it is probably the politicians (concentrated in Pretoria) siphoning off all the country's money (not to mention all the kick-backs & other income from corruption etc) and spending it there!!

As regards the informal sector: I seem to recall that Stats SA some time ago discovered that the economic figures do not include the informal sector. I take that to mean non taxpaying businesses, hawkers etc. They (Stat SA) were quite excited because it meant inter alia that the unemployment figures etc would be lower - they jump at anything to show what a good job the government is doing. It just crossed my mind that bringing these figures into the equation would probably give the GNP a once off boost.

Regards,
cjm
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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

Looking at the latest NAAMSA figures the SA Auto industry is on the up. Exports have been hitting records for the last couple of years, so that is usually a good sign.

Obviously this is helped by the weak Rand!

As for the other sectors... dunno!

I just want to know what the MAIN influence is when it comes to the weakening Rand. What caused it to weaken so much?

First, the official version.

The Asian economies took a severe nosedive some time ago which caused investors to re-evaluate their investments in so-called emerging markets & third world countries. This caused a major loss of confidence in the economies of countries such as SA.

Recently Argentina also caused a new round of jitters by threatening to default on debt repayments. Another blow to emerging countries.

Zimbabwe did SA a lot of harm with the farm invasions not to mention our own recent problems at Bredell.

The unofficial version basically boils down to the fact that foreign investors have lost confidence in the way our country is going (this is the nicest way I can put it without sinking in a deluge of expletives & other nasty comments).

WARNING: I am not an economist and the above is a layman's interpretation of what is going on.
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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

I see your point, you gave a very good reason. I just hope we can gain back their confidence (which may take a while) But I'm sure SA's golden years are still to come.

According to today's paper about 63% of SA's export income is generated by the export of commodity metals such as gold, silver, platinum & palladium.

Since the beginning of the year prices for these metals have shown a major decline, says the paper, which has put the Rand under a lot of pressure. Interestingly enough the Australian dollar has declined more than the Rand against the US dollar, during the same period, which apparently confirms this thesis.


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"You only live once, but that is quite enough"

Very interesting indeed. Thanx fer the info Cjm!