75% of South Africans earn 11% of the country's income, study finds
Africa Melane spoke Jacolize Meiring, head of the Personal Finance Research Unit at the University of South Africa about personal income estimates for South Africa between 2011 and 2022.
The Bureau of Market Research (BMR) estimates that the personal income of South Africans was skewed between 2011 and 2022.
The study was conducted to understand consumer finances in South Africa and the overall performance of the economy.
It further concluded that 60% of economic growth came from consumer expenditure.
South Africa is dealt a blow by power utility Eskom's energy crisis, industrial action and political instability.
These are further compounded by the global Ukraine-Russia conflict.
According to studies conducted by the BMR, 75% of the working adult population receives an annual income of R69, 974 - slightly above R5, 800 per month - but only receives 11% of the total income in the country.
This is in stark contrast to 3.8% of this population receiving above R48,000 of monthly income, accounting for 47% of the total income.
Head researcher of the BMR's Personal Finance Research Unit, Jacolize Meiring, estimates that things don't seem to be looking up in the foreseeable future.
Meiring said that the Research Consumption Consumer Vulnerability Index indicated that it would take, at least, an additional 18 months for consumers to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Meiring expects a recovery will happen despite these negative contributors to the growing pains.
We've seen some volatile times in the past few weeks but we try to be optimistic to say, 'our recovery process will most likely continue to have a slow recovery but the recovery will continue'. It is all about what is done on the micro levels, so, at the bottom to say, 'how are consumers handling their finances? How is the support provided, the environment support provided for consumers to be able to recover from the hit of COVID-19?'.
Jacolize Meiring, senior researcher head of the Personal Finance Research Unit - Bureau of Market Research (BMR)
Listen to the full interview below.
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : 75% of South Africans earn 11% of the country's income, study finds
