IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/adz/wpaper/202102.html

Challenges and Complexities of the South African Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Fiona Tregenna

    (DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, College of Economics and Business, University of Johannesburg.)

  • Arabo Ewinyu

    (Public Economy, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand.)

  • Arkebe Oqubay

    (Senior Minister and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.)

  • Imraan Valodia

    (Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand.)

Abstract

This paper discusses key characteristics and core challenges of the South African economy in the post-Apartheid era. South Africa shares some commonalities with other African and middle-income economies, yet has a unique history and some distinctive economic features. South Africa’s economic complexities and challenges are discussed here with reference to six comparator countries. We examine South Africa’s growth path, considering the low rates of economic growth as well as the lack of structural transformation and the unsustainable and non-inclusive nature of this growth. The ‘triple challenges’ of poverty, inequality and employment are both a manifestation of the nature of this growth path and a constraint on overall growth. This is also briefly evaluated in the context of the political economy and policy context of growth and development in South Africa. The paper reviews South African economic data, with a focus on microeconomic survey data.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiona Tregenna & Arabo Ewinyu & Arkebe Oqubay & Imraan Valodia, 2021. "Challenges and Complexities of the South African Economy," SARChI-ID Working Papers 2021-02, SARChI Industrial Development (SARChI-ID), University of Johannesburg (UJ), revised May 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:adz:wpaper:202102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uj.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sarchi-wp-2021-02-tregenna-f--ewinyu-a--oqubay-a--and-valodia-i--may-2021-1.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:adz:wpaper:202102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Melanie Ridgard (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/secujza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.