South Africa’s 232 extra-budgetary accounts (EBAs) paid out less money in the form of social benefits in the 2014/15 fiscal year. Social benefits are transfers in cash or in-kind to the public that diminishes exposure to social risks such as unemployment, sickness due to disabilities and injury.   Social benefits paid by EBAs amounted to   read more »

Municipalities continue to invest heavily in service delivery-related infrastructure, according to Stats SA’s latest Capital expenditure by the public sector report. Municipalities increased their total capital expenditure (or capex) from R51,7 billion in 2014 to R59,0 billion in 2015, a rise of 14,3%. The largest component of municipal spending on infrastructure in 2015 was on   read more »

Media Invite 22 July 2016   Statistician-General releases capital expenditure statistics of public sector institutions   The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, will release the Capital expenditure by the public sector institutions for 2014/15 financial year. This report will provide financial statistics on the amounts spent by public sector institutions (including government departments,   read more »

How well have South African businesses performed? This can be a complicated question that can be tackled with a range of indicators. From the wealth of financial data available from the recently published Quarterly Financial Statistics (QFS), Stats SA takes a look at one such indicator: the profit margin ratio.   A limitation of financial   read more »

Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES), first quarter 2016   According to the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) for the first quarter of 2016 released by Statistics South Africa today, employment in the formal non-agricultural sector of the South African economy decreased by 0,2% (15 000 employees) to 9 273 000 in the first quarter of 2016, compared   read more »

Media Invite 1 July 2016 Statistician-General to release formal sector employment statistics for the first quarter of 2016   The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, will release the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) for the first quarter of 2016. The QES measures changes in employment across all industries in the formal sector of the   read more »

29 June 2016 Financial census of municipalities for the year ended June 2015   According to the Financial Census of Municipalities results released by Statistics South Africa today, for the financial year ended 30 June 2015, municipalities across South Africa had received an income of R309 billion from all sources of income, this represented an   read more »

Municipalities spend more money on their employees than on any one of the services provided to their clients/customers. Data from Stats SA’s latest Financial census of municipalities provides interesting insight into the patterns of salary costs across municipalities, as well as over time. Salary patterns across space Employee-related costs took up the largest chunk of   read more »

6 June 2016 Stats SA releases Gross domestic product (GDP), Q1 2016 The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, together with South Africa Reserve Bank Governor, Mr Lesetja Kganyago, will release the Gross domestic product (GDP) statistical release, for the first quarter of 2016, at a media briefing to be held on Wednesday, 08   read more »

Data from Stats SA’s latest Financial statistics of national government report1 provides some insights into government spending on social grants. Below are just two examples about the grant spending social welfare system in South Africa. Fact 1: For every R100 national government spends on social grants, R42 goes to family and children grants; R41 goes   read more »