South Africans’ wallets grow ever slimmer
Disposable income has fallen in real terms for the eighth consecutive month
South Africans’ disposable income continued to fall in real terms in January, shrinking for the eighth consecutive month. That was the first time since 2013 that BankservAfrica’s disposable salary index has shown such a long losing streak. Take-home pay remains under pressure due incremental tax increases via adjustments to tax brackets, as well as low salary increases and rising medical insurance costs. However‚ total salary payouts did not decrease in real terms. There were 177‚000 additional small pay checks‚ mostly for part-time and weekly paid temps, which contributed to keeping the movement of salaries static in real terms. In nominal terms‚ average salaries increased by 3.9% in January 2017 — below the actual cost of living increase. Consumer inflation dipped to 6.6% in January form 6.8% in December, Statistics SA data show. It has been near those levels for most of the past year. The average nominal disposable salary in January 2017, according to the BankservAfrica index, wa...
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