Rob Glenn Economics Reports 3/13/14
South Africa is the most powerful and successful economy on the African Continent. But this economic powerhouse is struggling and showing signs of distress. (World book) Their economy has been on the decline in the past four years. This is shown through the study of their macroeconomics and their exchange rate, as well as inflation.
First the Country of South Africa has a floating exchange rate. This means the value of their money is determined by the laws of supply and demand. The South African Rand isn’t very successful on the open market. For example, the exchange rate between other world economic superpowers like New Zealand, Australia, the British pound, the Euro and the United States dollar ranges between 9.2-17.9 South African Rand to the other countries currency. (exchangerates.org) This proves that the value of the Rand is not worth much on the World Market compared to other countries’ currencies, and has hit its lowest value within the last five years.
As of January 2014 the inflation rate of South Africa was around 5.9 percent. (tradingeconomies.com) The average inflation rate for South Africa was around 9.47 percent between the years of 1968-2014. (Tradingeconomies.com) The average inflation rate for the previous year was around 5.40, and the highest inflation rate ever suffered by the South African market was 20.90, but on the other hand they experienced an extremely low inflation rate of around .20 during a time of economic growth in South Africa. (tradingeconomies.com) The forecasted inflation rate for the remainder of the year is expected to be around 5.54 percent. (Tradingeconomies.com) The South African economy averages a .7 percent rise in prices on a monthly basi...
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South Africa’s once booming economy is on the decline as their markets struggles to gain its place in the world while their economy continues to emerge. (World book) The main macroeconomic problem that South Africa suffers from most is there difficulty in supplying jobs for many of its citizens in its country. They also suffer from a bad exchange rate on the open market, and continue to struggle to reduce their inflation rate.
Works Cited
Work Sited Page
“9 major problems facing South Africa-and how to fix them,” (2011 July, 18). www.leader.co.za/printarticle.aspx?s=1+f=1+a=2893. Retrieved from www.leader.co.ca
Reuters. (2014, March 12). “South Africa Economy Slowing,” Business Report. Retrieved form www.iol.co.za.
www.exchangerates.org
www.tradingeconomies.com/southafrica
www.Heratige.org/index/country/southafrica
www.economist.com
Petersson, Lennart. Post-Apartheid Southern Africa: Economic Challenges and Policies for the Future: Proceedings of the 16th Arne Ryde Symposium, 23-24 August 1996, Lund, Sweden. New York City: Routledge, 1998.
South Africa has large varieties ethnic backgrounds; unfortunately for them none of them are allowed their chance to shine because of the cloud of racism that has over shadowed their history. Like the United States, South African countries are built for the success of whites before any other ethnicity. This can be found in the countries politics and economics alike. For over 300 years this racism has occurred. Around the 1940’s South Africans have coined a policy for this racism, “apartheid”. In English apartheid can be translated to “Apart-hood”. (2) This will be touched about in more detail later. Like the United States, South Africa has had to deal with centuries of racism, the problem being that South Africans racism doesn’t seem to be depleting as fast as other countries in the same situation.
When studying Angola’s inflation rates and economy structure it is important to understand the inherent challenges faced. Unlike the US, Angola has a poorly developed infrastructure that makes moving goods and equipment difficult and costly. Also Angola suffers from an inefficient trading system with her African neighbors. Each side is required to first exchange their currencies into a third party foreign currency, like the US dollar, then they can conduct business. This makes transactions complex, time consuming, and expensive. Examples like this form the basis on why Angola’s inflation rates are relatively high. From 2009 to 2011 Angola dealt with rates between 13.5% and 14.5%. From 2012 to 2014 the inflation rates have steadily declined
....worldbank.gov. (2011). Data on Gross Domestic Product and Total employment of South Africa. World Bank.
Arora, V. (n.d), Economic growth in post-apartheid South Africa: A growth-Accounting analysis. Inquiry, 14: 13-22.
Bureau of African Affairs. (2011). Background Note: South Africa. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2898.html
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