IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

Capital expenditure by South Africa’s higher education institutions continued to fall, for the second consecutive year. The country’s 20 universities and 6 universities of technology recorded a 5,4% drop in capital expenditure in 2017 compared with 2016, falling from R6,22 billion to R5,89 billion. This followed a 0,7% drop in 2016, according to Stats SA’s recent Financial   read more »

South Africa’s 257 municipalities spent a total of R88,6 billion in the quarter ended June 2018, 18% more than the R75,1 billion spent during the quarter ended March 2018. Municipal revenue was down, however, falling by 6% over the same period, from R87,6 billion (March quarter) to R82,6 billion (June quarter). Stats SA’s latest Quarterly financial statistics of municipalities   read more »

Where does provincial government get its funding from? South Africa’s nine provincial governments form the second tier of government, sandwiched between national government and local government. Among other functions, provincial governments play an important role in the administration of the country’s health and education systems. Provincial government departments sourced R519,4 billion in revenue in 2016/17,   read more »

Annual food inflation continues to slow despite April’s rise in value added tax (VAT). In fact, some food items are actually cheaper than they were a year ago. The items you are now paying less for are in the oil, bread, fruit and sugar categories, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) release.1 Bread   read more »

Much excitement surrounds the 10th BRICS Summit currently taking place in Johannesburg. Heads of State and representatives from the club’s five members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are gearing up for a week of deliberation over common issues and shared interests. As the host, how does South Africa rank in terms   read more »

Where does your tax money go after it has entered the state coffers? Recent data provide an overview of how national government distributes money to other levels of government. Stats SA publishes financial data for the different levels of government (i.e. national, provincial, local, extra-budgetary accounts) and higher education institutions in separate reports throughout the   read more »

Eskom announced earlier this year that it would roll out power cuts to several defaulting municipalities.1 The inability of particular municipalities to honour debt payments has been a thorn in the flesh of local government administration. The following are a few key facts about municipal debt, from Statistics South Africa’s latest Financial census of municipalities   read more »

Perspective matters. A lot. Recent provincial economic data published by Stats SA take on a fresh light when they’re ranked against other countries. Gauteng is South Africa’s economic powerhouse. The province contributed just over a third to South Africa’s economic output in 2016, according to provincial gross domestic product (GDP) figures.1 In runner-up positions were   read more »

Keeping a close eye on municipal finances takes a lot of work. One of Stats SA’s tasks is to compile statistics every quarter on the state of local government finances, from 257 municipalities across the country. Figures for the quarter ending December 2017 were recently released, providing an update on how municipalities spend their money.   read more »

In a time when good news seems hard to come by, the latest gross domestic product (GDP) results provide some cautious cheer. The South African economy grew by 1,3% in 2017, exceeding National Treasury’s expectation of 1,0% growth announced during the National Budget Speech in February. After a wobbly start to 2017, which saw economic   read more »