South African Economics

There are unprecedented monetary policy actions currently being undertaken by several advanced economy central banks. These actions are indirectly providing relief to central banks in emerging markets such as the South African Reserve Bank that are presiding over twin deficit economies, with low growth and high inflation. In the Eurozone growth has been improving but […]

The word credit comes from the Latin word credere, which means to believe or to trust. Therefore, in assessing credit risk analysts must not only look for the ability to pay, but also assess the willingness to pay. Analysing the ability to pay tends to be a quantitative exercise, while the assessment of the willingness […]

At a recent cricket match, while watching their team dish out yet another hiding to the Proteas, English fans added insult to injury, chanting “we’ve got R23 to the Pound” and “we’re so rich it’s unbelievable.” However, while watching the persistent depreciation of the rand over the last three years has been deeply concerning there […]

South Africa’s economy is undergoing a meaningful underperformance. Average economic growth in the five years to 2016 is likely to come in well below 2%. In our post Second World War history, a similar period of sustained weakness has only been experienced in the second half of the 1980s and the first of the 1990s. […]