BUSINESS DAY TV: We need to work longer to live longer, and save harder
Johan Van Tonder is a researcher and an economist at Momentum. BUSINESS DAY TV: Average household wealth in South Africa appears to be headed backwards, and that’s even before our downgrade to junk status. The latest Momentum Unisa Household Wealth Index for 2016 shows that the levels of real net wealth per household is now at a similar level to where it was in 2012. And joining us to discuss the detail and the factors behind the decline is Johan Van Tonder, a researcher and economist at Momentum. Johan, looking at the kind of decline we’ve seen in net wealth per household, is it as simple as earnings not keeping up with inflation? JOHAN VAN TONDER: That’s one of the reasons here, but it’s also what households are doing with the income because what we’ve noted from the research is that households are not using the income in order to build wealth, they’re actually borrowing more to consume more and they’re not borrowing to accumulate assets. Secondly, they’re not saving to accumulate...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.