{"id":60669,"date":"2024-02-06T15:59:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T15:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets"},"modified":"2024-02-06T17:02:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T17:02:00","slug":"south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets","title":{"rendered":"South Africans feel the pain as debt skyrockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>There has been a significant increase in South Africans in need of debt counselling as high interest rates, and below-inflation salary increases are taking their toll.<\/p>\n

This is according to DebtBusters\u2019 Benay Sager, who told SABC News that the company saw an over 40% year-on-year increase in queries for debt review in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s driven by a few things. One is that last year was probably the most difficult financial year for South Africans, at least in the last 15 to 20 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to high inflation, particularly for food, electricity, and petrol, as a significant factor weighing on South African consumers.<\/p>\n

Combined with high inflation are high interest rates and load-shedding\u2019s impact on small businesses, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been any growth in terms of jobs and people\u2019s salaries. All of those things really impacted a lot of consumers, and we\u2019ve certainly seen a significant increase in January,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sager added that he expects to see the same for the rest of 2024.<\/p>\n

In particular, South Africa\u2019s middle class is under severe strain from interest rates, as defaults on home loans have increased significantly over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

This is feedback from Experian Africa\u2019s head of commercial strategy, Jaco van Jaarsveldt.<\/p>\n

Van Jaasveldt told 702 that the total value of outstanding credit in the South African market is roughly R2.16 trillion \u2013 R1.16 in secured lending products and R1 trillion in home loans.<\/p>\n

In addition, only 12% of South African credit-active consumers have access to that type of debt. Therefore, 80% of unsecured lending debt sits in the hands of 12% of the credit-active population.<\/p>\n

He said Experian\u2019s Consumer Default Index has deteriorated significantly over the past 18 months and can be seen as an accurate measure of consumer distress.<\/p>\n

The Index looks at people who have defaulted beyond three months delinquent for the first time.<\/p>\n

There has been a 70% year-on-year increase in these defaults among the most affluent segment of the market. \u201cThat is purely because of interest rates and secured lending exposure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The World Economic Forum\u2019s (WEF) Future of Growth report recently revealed that South Africans are getting poorer as the country\u2019s population grows while its economy stagnates, meaning there is less money to go around.<\/p>\n

The report showed that South Africa\u2019s economy is not competitive on the global stage, as it is below average on three of the four key indicators that the WEF considers vital to economic prosperity.<\/p>\n

Of particular concern is how the country\u2019s economic growth has failed to keep up with its population, making South Africans poorer.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. There has been a significant increase in South Africans in need of debt counselling as high interest rates, and below-inflation salary increases are taking their toll. This is according to DebtBusters\u2019 Benay Sager, who told SABC News that the company saw an over 40% year-on-year increase in queries for debt review in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":60668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-60669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Africans feel the pain as debt skyrockets - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There has been a significant increase in South Africans in need of debt counselling as high interest rates, and below-in ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africans feel the pain as debt skyrockets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There has been a significant increase in South Africans in need of debt counselling as high interest rates, and below-in ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-06T15:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-06T17:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1707226041.286042.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africans feel the pain as debt skyrockets\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-06T15:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-06T17:02:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\"},\"wordCount\":454,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1707226041.286042.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-feel-the-pain-as-debt-skyrockets\",\"name\":\"South Africans feel the pain as debt skyrockets - 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