{"id":1397,"date":"2023-09-25T05:58:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T05:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:46:25","slug":"tough-times-ahead-for-south-african-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/2023\/09\/25\/tough-times-ahead-for-south-african-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough times ahead for South African consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Citadel chief economist Maarten Ackerman has encouraged South Africans to brace themselves for a challenging economic period as economic growth continues to be muted.<\/p>\n

Ackerman\u2019s comments came in light of Stats SA\u2019s latest data which showed that the South African economy had grown by 0.6% in Q2 2023.<\/p>\n

While this was higher than expected, Ackerman said the rand billion number for South Africa\u2019s GDP in Q2 is \u201cin fact still very close to where the country was in mid-2022\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country\u2019s economy was R1.161 billion strong in the third quarter of last year versus R1.160 billion now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, considering that we\u2019ve seen almost no growth since South Africa\u2019s pre-Covid levels, the country has seen very flat GDP growth over the past few years, mainly due to the structural challenges it is facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said South Africa\u2019s growth is mainly hampered by structural challenges and cited load-shedding as one of the country\u2019s key challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to remember that we won\u2019t grow this economy if we don\u2019t rebuild its infrastructure first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said ongoing load-shedding means the construction industry is still underwater, \u201cwhich is a great pity because construction is an important job creation sector in the economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition, Ackerman said the GDP data clearly shows South African consumers are under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumer spending is typically a positive sector for the economy, but in the past quarter, we saw a 0.3% decline in household spending,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

In Q2, households still spent on services but declined on durable, semi-durable and non-durable goods.<\/p>\n

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Ackerman said this is an indication of the headwinds that consumers are facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the areas where they spent, such as restaurants and hotels, which showed a marked 4.1% growth in spending, you could argue that this was due to load-shedding, which forced consumers to look for alternatives when they could not eat at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged consumers to brace for a tough economic period ahead, as he predicts that in the next 12 to 18 months, South Africa might see growth coming down and settling at about 1.5% or 1.16% for 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings will most likely get tougher for consumers, as the world faces further economic stress, load-shedding continues, and the job market takes further strain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, South Africa\u2019s economic growth looks slightly better than expected. However, due to the structural issues we face as a country, we have not achieved the sustainable numbers required for job creation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citadel chief economist Maarten Ackerman has encouraged South Africans to brace themselves for a challenging economic period as economic growth continues to be muted. Ackerman\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innov8ions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}