{"id":156331,"date":"2017-02-09T12:30:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T10:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=156331"},"modified":"2017-02-09T12:30:31","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T10:30:31","slug":"these-4-graphs-sum-up-south-africas-massive-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/156331\/these-4-graphs-sum-up-south-africas-massive-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"These 4 graphs sum up South Africa’s massive economic challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg has\u00a0released <\/a><\/strong>four graphs which break down\u00a0the economic challenges South Africa is currently\u00a0facing as President Zuma\u00a0prepares to deliver his State of the Nation Address.<\/p>\n

According to Bloomberg, the address\u00a0comes at a time when unemployment is at the highest in 13 years; economic growth in 2016 was the slowest since a recession in 2009; and the country is struggling to retain its investment-grade credit rating.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0news group based its\u00a0graphs on a combination of data collected from Statistics South Africa, the International Monetary Fund and the Reserve Bank as well as through predicted analysis from some of South Africa’s top financial experts.<\/p>\n

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Economic Slump<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Bloomberg cited the central bank’s 0.4% economic growth estimate in 2016 as a serious factor for President Zuma to consider when giving his address.<\/p>\n

Despite the\u00a0low growth likely being caused by the continuing\u00a0drought, weak demand from the nation\u2019s main export partners and low commodity prices, Bloomberg also noted that political infighting had also cast a shadow over the state\u2019s efforts to boost confidence and growth.<\/p>\n

\n

Political Turmoil<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Bloomberg noted that President Jacob Zuma and Finance Minister Pravhin Gordhan have been at loggerheads since his reappointment to the Treasury in 2015, with their battles repeatedly making an impact on the economy.<\/p>\n

\n

High unemployment rate<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Unemployment in South Africa increased to 27.1% in the quarter through September 2016, the highest since 2003, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n

38%\u00a0of people between 15 and 34 are unemployed highlighting the economy\u2019s skills shortage while poverty levels and anger over rising tuition costs have led to violent protests by students.<\/p>\n

\n

Credit-Ratings Risk<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa’s economic fate has seemingly been at the whims of three credit ratings agencies over the past year.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg notes that while S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings Ltd.<\/a> kept their assessments of the nation\u2019s foreign-currency debt at one level above junk late last year, and Moody\u2019s Investors Service\u2019s assessment is one step higher, there is still a chance that South Africa\u2019s debt will be downgraded this year.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: It\u2019s official: national minimum wage set at R3,500 per month<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg has released four graphs which break down the economic challenges South Africa is currently facing as President Zuma prepares to deliver his State of the Nation Address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":156377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[25,1850],"class_list":["post-156331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-active","tag-bloomberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156331"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156393,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156331\/revisions\/156393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}