South+Africa's+Economics


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The Economy

South Africa is considered to be a middle-income and emerging market. In this country, there is an abundant supply of natural resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors, a stock exchange that is 18th largest in the world and a modern infrastructure with an efficient means to export goods. At the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity crisis. State power supplier, Eskom, encountered problems with aged power plants, and as a resu lt, removed some residents and businesses from the supply.

Growth was high from 2004 to 2008 when South Africa reaped the benefits of stability and a global comm odities boom, but began to slow in the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis' impact on prices and demand. GDP fell nearly 2% in 2009.

Some problems do currently occur in South Africa. Unemployment remains high. Economic problems remain from the apartheid era, including poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public transportation. While South Africa's government follows a process of being fiscally conservative, they are having trouble with their economy due to the global crisis (The World Factbook, n.d.).

The following economic statistical information in South Africa is listed in US dollars. However, South Africa's form of currency is called the rand (ZAR) and 1 US dollar is equal to 8.54 rands.


 * Gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) in 2009: $504.6 billion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Gross domestic product (official exchange rate) in 2009: $287.2 billion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Gross national income in 2009: $496.36 billion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Labor force in 2009: 17.3 million economically active [[image:pov_4.jpg width="560" height="205" align="right"]]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Budget: revenues - $77.18 billion, expenditures - $94 billion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Public debt: 29.7% of GDP
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Unemployment rate in 2009: 24%
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Population below the poverty line in 2000: 50%
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Average salary in South Africa: $2,415.93
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Exports: $66.54 billion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Imports: $66.01 billion

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">From the above information, it can be gathered that the average person in South Africa is somewhat negatively affected by the economy. The salary per year does not suggest a sufficient amount of money for a person to survive with and support a family. This is especially true when considering that half of the population was below the poverty line in the year 2000, and that in the year 2009, 24% of the population was unemployed. The country spends more than it makes, which creates an increasing debt. All of these factors make living difficult in South Africa. Also, there are some health problems in South Africa. About 5.7 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, and other diseases such as bad water contact, are at an intermediate risk. Insufficient funds do not allow this problem to be alleviated very easily.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 80%;">Resources: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 80%; line-height: normal;">SAIRR Today: Unemployment and Poverty. (2008, November 28). South African Institute of Race Relations. Retrieved December 5, 2010, from http://p10.opennetworks.co.za/sairr.org.za/sairr-today/news_item.2008-11-28.9488661622/ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;">The World Factbook. (n.d.).Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved December 5, 2010, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html