{"id":92528,"date":"2025-11-07T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:53:18","slug":"south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007","title":{"rendered":"South Africans worse off now than in 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Since 2019, South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita has been below 2007 levels, meaning South Africans have become poorer in a stagnant economy.<\/p>\n

Compared to its emerging market peers, South Africa is the only country that experienced a decline in GDP per capita relative to 2007 levels.<\/p>\n

While some of this can be attributed to external shocks, most of the blame lies at South Africa\u2019s feet, with structural constraints on the economy\u2019s fundamental drivers eroding the country\u2019s potential growth.<\/p>\n

This is according to Coface economists Aroni Chauduri and Noe\u0301mie David in the organisation\u2019s recent report, \u201cCracks in the BRIC(K)S: Why South Africa Fails to Thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

GDP per capita measures a country\u2019s economic output per person, calculated by dividing the total GDP by the population. It is a standard metric for assessing a nation\u2019s economic prosperity and living standards.<\/p>\n

In their report, Chauduri and David explained that South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita in 2024 was below 2007 levels, as growth failed to pick up in the decades following the Great Financial Crisis (GFC).<\/p>\n

This has been accompanied by the deterioration in several social indicators, including extremely high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and crime.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Chauduri and David noted that governance also deteriorated, and critical infrastructure was in disrepair, making living conditions increasingly challenging for the population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen comparing South Africa to peer emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, it is evident that it has underperformed in terms of GDP per capita, employment, and investment, while being similarly exposed to global economic cycles,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests large structural constraints limiting South Africa\u2019s growth potential and its ability to recover from external shocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The economists explained that these constraints were focused on the foundations of the country\u2019s economic structure, including energy and South Africa\u2019s labour market.<\/p>\n

For energy, Chauduri and David explained that the failure of electricity supply was caused by flaws in price regulation and Eskom\u2019s insufficient capital expenditure by Eskom, which ultimately made it financially unsustainable.<\/p>\n

The failures of South Africa\u2019s labour market are evident in the country\u2019s structurally high unemployment rate, which is a result of the economy\u2019s low growth, deindustrialisation, and skill mismatches.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, labour force participation is low due to the high level of exclusion caused by spatial disparities inherited from the apartheid era,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s decline in GDP per capita can be seen in the graph below, courtesy of Coface.<\/p>\n

South Africans getting poorer<\/b><\/p>\n

In a recent interview with BizNews, economist Dawie Roodt explained that South Africans have been getting poorer on a per capita basis over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at a successful society, you have high levels of income, a good, safe environment, a clean environment, trustworthy police, good levels of education, health services, all good things. We can\u2019t say that about South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roodt explained that one of South Africa\u2019s biggest problems is its slow economic growth. The country\u2019s economy has declined from an average annual growth rate of 4% in 2008 to 0.8% less than two decades later.<\/p>\n

He explained that this has made several other metrics, including state debt and GDP per capita, significantly worse over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the state\u2019s finances today, they have become unstable in the sense that debt levels just kept on going up as a percentage of GDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend more and more on interest and state debt, so we need to do something \u2013 we need to reduce this ratio of debt-to-GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI say we need to reduce the ratio because we can actually increase debt as long as the economy grows fast enough, but the economy doesn\u2019t grow fast enough. So, we are heading for a financial crisis if we continue like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s debt burden has risen to around 75% of GDP, with the state spending an estimated R1.2 billion a day servicing this debt.<\/p>\n

This has left the government scrambling for more revenue year after year, with the Treasury often turning to tax increases.<\/p>\n

It has also crowded out spending on more productive and helpful expenditure items like health, infrastructure and education.<\/p>\n

Therefore, South Africans are not only left with a higher tax burden that is eating away at their take-home pay, but are also not benefiting from these higher contributions in the form of improved state services.<\/p>\n

Source: dailyinvestor<\/b><\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Since 2019, South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita has been below 2007 levels, meaning South Africans have become poorer in a stagnant economy. Compared to its emerging market peers, South Africa is the only country that experienced a decline in GDP per capita relative to 2007 levels. While some of this can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Africans worse off now than in 2007 - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since 2019, South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita has been below 2007 levels, meaning South Africans have become poorer in a sta ...\" \/>\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-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africans worse off now than in 2007\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since 2019, South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita has been below 2007 levels, meaning South Africans have become poorer in a sta ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\" \/>\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=\"2025-11-07T18:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T18:53:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1762528927.85668.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\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=\"4 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-worse-off-now-than-in-2007#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africans worse off now than in 2007\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-07T18:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T18:53:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\"},\"wordCount\":761,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1762528927.85668.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africans-worse-off-now-than-in-2007\",\"name\":\"South Africans worse off now than in 2007 - 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