Picture for illustrative purposes depicting debt-induced rolling blackouts dampened economic activity in November. This is reflected in the most recent BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (BETI), which fell for the sixth consecutive month.
Last month, the BETI fell to an index level of 130.2 and on a yearly basis, the index fell by 1.0 percentage points.
According to Bankserve analysis, the continuing load-shedding crisis in November, combined with the interest rate hike, elevated inflation levels and global economic slowdown, has contributed to another month of declining economic activity.
Chief Economist Elize Kruger says all of these factors, cumulatively, have placed a damper on confidence levels in the South African economy while keeping a ceiling on growth and job creation in South Africa.
She claims the economic reality for South Africans has been deteriorating over the past year.
“Bankserve 2022 has been quite a challenging year for South Africa, thinking about ongoing load shedding that everybody had to deal with impacting our productivity sitting in traffic jams, companies not being able to produce to their capacity, cost of living increases, inflation rates having increased quite significantly, just here with that interest rates. A lot of challenges and on top of that, you know, we also dodging potholes and we need to streets. So thinking about South Africans in our reality has been quite harsh over the past year and looking though, you know, um in terms of inflation for one, I do think people see a moderation into 2023 so that will, will help us a bit. And on the interstate side, I think we are very close to the upper turning point where at least a level where interest rates will remain unchanged for a prolonged period. So looking at 2023 hopefully as a tiny bit better. But 2022 has been a challenge in here,” Kruger explains.
VIDEO: CONSUMER INFLATION SLOWS DOWN TO 7.4 % IN NOVEMBER
