Blog
Anthony Black, Lawrence Edwards, Ruth Gorven, and Willard Mapulanga
Regional integration in Africa is underway but progress requires that the gains are widely spread. South Africa’s huge regional trade surplus in manufactured goods is leading to protectionist pressures in neighbouring countries. Agro-processing is a...
21 September 2022
Regional growth
Working paper
Ewa Karwowski, Hanna Szymborska, Keagile Lesame, and Tlhologelo Thoka
Globally, corporate cash holdings have risen since the 1980s. In South Africa, some commentators have accused corporations of engaging in an ‘investment strike’, while others see corporate liquidity as a precaution against systemic uncertainty. We...
August 2022
Enterprise development
Report
Sarah Truen
After the South African democratic transition, substantial advances were made in the provision of water services to households which had previously not been supplied. However, more recently, the pace of progress has slowed, and technical...
July 2022
Inequality
Regional growth
Working paper
Ihsaan Bassier, Joshua Budlender, and Maya Goldman
Up-to-date, nationally representative household income/expenditure data are crucial to estimating poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic and to policy-making more broadly, but South Africa lacks such data. We present new pandemic poverty estimates, simulating incomes in...
July 2022
Macro modelling
Background
Amina Ebrahim and Sibusiso Gumbi
Job retention schemes have been one of the many policy tools used to curb the effects of a lockdown and the COVID-19 crisis. The system works by reducing labour costs which could prevent or reduce...
June 2022
Background
Amina Ebrahim and Aalia Cassim
Countries need data and evidence to create, amend, and evaluate policy. South Africa has been at the vanguard of data collection in sub-Saharan Africa with strong and long-standing institutions collecting data for research purposes. Making...
June 2022
Working paper
Roy Havemann and Hylton Hollander
South Africa runs a primary fiscal deficit and the long-term interest rate on government borrowing, r, is greater than the long-term economic growth rate, g. Without intervention, debt will continue to rise until there is...
June 2022
Macro modelling
In the media
SA-TIED
The launch of SA-TIED Phase II was a major success, garnering widespread media attention. Bongani Bingwa, the host of Breakfast 702, interviewed Antony Phillipson, High Commissioner of the UK to South Africa, ahead of yesterday’s...
May 2022
In the media
by SA-TIED
Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, has lauded the impact of SA-TIED Phase I in supporting evidence-based policy-making to help South Africa (SA) address some of its most pressing economic problems. He cited the example of...
6 May 2022
Report
Jacob L. van der Merwe
The low rail market share for general freight and passenger transport along South Africa’s long corridors negatively impacts the cost of logistics, restricts economic growth, and underutilizes rail capacity. Opportunities exist to technically improve capacity...
April 2022
Working paper
Patrick Honohan and Athanasios Orphanides
This paper reviews South Africa’s monetary policy since 2007 and makes recommendations towards improving the inflation-targeting framework currently in place. Following a surge in inflation into double digits in 2007/08, the South African Reserve Bank...
March 2022
Macro modelling