121 A letter from a student - SA Economy

Good day Charl,

Hope this mail finds you well. We had a chat after class on Saturday re more lessons and assistance on Economics. You had suggested that I send you my Eco assignment before submission which I'm still busy with.

Please may I if possible get more info on SA's economic growth, imports and exports i.e. is SA exporting enough, importing. do we have competitive advantage as a country?

The growth of the rand and strength over the past few years. the causes of our rand dropping. what can be done to improve our economy as a country?

This is purely for my understanding of our South African economy. So please if you have information that can be of good use, send it through.

Please advise

Many Thanks in advance

Regards xxxxx

One can look at the Exchange rate of a currency like the “share price” of a country – and ours has dropped consistently over the past few years.

Foreign investors are currently moving out of investing in SA for a number of reasons:

The returns that they can earn here is relatively small

Political developments are worrying them.

Our productivity is lagging (electricity, crime, other issues)

People are selling rands that is why the price is falling. People are not buying (investing).

As a country we have cash flow problems as well as the longer term debt issue.

We will see what Pravin says on Wednesday. If he raises tax we are in trouble. If he sells state assets we may have a chance.

From: xxxxxxxxx

Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2016 11:28 AM

To: Charl Heydenrych

Subject: Fwd: Undeliverable: Economics