NEWS ANALYSIS: SA’s saving rate hits record low
This trough has created a vicious circle of poor economic growth, which in turn generates meagre incomes
South Africans are saving less, even dipping into their savings and investments to survive as the sluggish economy, high unemployment and rising cost of living make it harder for people to put away money. At 14%, the country's gross saving reached a 28-year low in 2018 and that’s before subtracting depreciation of worn-out infrastructure, the Investec Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) Savings Index shows. The first report on this index was published in 2016, but it tracks the country’s saving rate from 1990. The latest iteration shows that the index hit a low of 60 at the end of 2018 and deteriorated further to 56.6 index points in the first quarter of 2019. Meanwhile a savings rate that can enable SA to invest to the level required to boost economic growth to optimal levels would push the score to 100 index points. Gibs economics and competitive strategy professor Adrian Saville, who is responsible for compiling the index, found that both the rate at which South Africans...
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