Finding a home in a big pond It is often said that small businesses hold the key to economic growth. Recently released data paint an interesting picture of where small businesses are making a substantial contribution to economic activity. Stats SA’s latest Quarterly financial statistics reports that the private sector earned a total of R2,1   read more »

Data from Stats SA’s Annual financial statistics (AFS) report shows that the debt-to-equity ratio for the private sector as a whole has dropped since 2005. The debt-to-equity ratio is a measure of how much debt a company or industry has incurred to finance its operations relative to equity. Debt refers to how much an industry   read more »

Stats SA’s latest Quarterly Financial Statistics report provides detailed financial statistics on the private sector, for the quarter ending September 2015. How did business turnover fare over this period? The following short article covers key turnover statistics from the report. Total turnover Total turnover in the private sector increased by 3,3% in the September 2015   read more »

01 December 2015 Media Release Taxis most used mode of public transport Taxis are the commonly used mode of public transport in South Africa with just more than half (51,0%) of the households that use public transport (76,7%) relying on them, followed by busses (18,1%) and trains (7,6%). This was highlighted in the Measuring household   read more »

Rural municipalities continue to rely heavily on national government to finance their budgets, according to data from the latest release of Stats SA’s Financial census of municipalities report. For every R1 of revenue received by municipalities in the year 2014, 33c was in the form of grants and subsidies from national and provincial government. The   read more »

The total turnover measured for selected industries increased by 8,9%, from R6,4 trillion in 2012 to just under R7,0 trillion in 2013, despite a decrease of 11 324 enterprises between the two years1. Enterprises in the electricity, gas and water supply industry experienced the largest percentage increase in turnover (+12,5%). The results on what drives income   read more »

Press Statement                                                                                                          3 April 2014 Poverty Trends in South Africa South Africa winning war on poverty Poverty levels in the country have declined as the number of people living below the poverty line dropped since 2006. The Poverty Trends Report released by Statistics South Africa reveals that people   living below the food poverty line   read more »

Given the vast amount of information appearing in detailed financial statements of companies, it may be difficult to discern significant relationships and trends in the data. One way to address this challenge is to use accounting ratios, which provides substantial insights into the relationships between variables and can indicate certain trends. Accounting ratios are calculated   read more »