| Introduction - South Africa: |
| Location - South Africa: |
| People - South Africa: |
| Government - South Africa: |
| Economy - South Africa: |
Economy overview | South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to lower South Africas high unemployment rate, and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic focusing on targeting inflation and liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household income. |
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Gdp purchasing power parity | $587.5 billion (2006 est.) |
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Gdp official exchange rate | $201.4 billion (2006 est.) |
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Gdp real growth rate | 5% (2006 est.) |
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Gdp per capita ppp | $13,300 (2006 est.) |
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Gdp composition by sector | agriculture: 2.6%
industry: 30.3%
services: 67.1% (2006 est.) |
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Labor force | 16.09 million economically active (2006 est.) |
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Labor force by occupation | agriculture: 30%
industry: 25%
services: 45% (1999 est.) |
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Unemployment rate | 25.5% (2006 est.) |
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Population below poverty line | 50% (2000 est.) |
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Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%: 1.1%
highest 10%: 45.9% (1994) |
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Distribution of family income gini index | 59.3 (1995) |
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Inflation rate consumer prices | 5% (2006 est.) |
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Investment gross fixed | 17.1% of GDP (2006 est.) |
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Budget | revenues: $72.15 billion
expenditures: $75.93 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
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Public debt | 32.9% of GDP (2006 est.) |
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Agriculture products | corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef, poultry, mutton, wool, dairy products |
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Industries | mining (worlds largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship repair |
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Industrial production growth rate | 7.1% (2006 est.) |
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Electricity production | 227.2 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity consumption | 207 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity exports | 12.4 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity imports | 8.026 billion kWh (2004) |
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Oil production | 229,900 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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Oil consumption | 502,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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Oil exports | NA bbl/day |
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Oil imports | 398,000 bbl/day (2006) |
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Oil proved reserves | 15.68 million bbl (1 January 2005) |
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Natural gas production | 2.23 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
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Natural gas consumption | 2.23 billion cu m (2004 est.) |
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Natural gas exports | 0 cu m (2004 est.) |
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Natural gas imports | 0 cu m (2004 est.) |
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Natural gas proved reserves | 28.32 million cu m (1 January 2005 est.) |
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Current account balance | -$12.69 billion (2006 est.) |
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Exports | $59.15 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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Exports commodities | gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment |
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Exports partners | Japan 12.1%, US 11.8%, UK 9%, Germany 7.6%, Netherlands 5.3%, China 4% (2006) |
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Imports | $61.53 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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Imports commodities | machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, foodstuffs |
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Imports partners | Germany 12.6%, China 10%, US 7.6%, Japan 6.6%, Saudi Arabia 5.3%, UK 5% (2006) |
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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | $23.74 billion (2006 est.) |
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Debt external | $55.47 billion (30 June 2006 est.) |
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Economic aid recipient | $487.5 million (2000) |
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Currency code | rand (ZAR) |
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Exchange rates | rand per US dollar - 6.7649 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002) |
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| Communications - South Africa: |
| Transportation - South Africa: |
| Military - South Africa: |
This page was last updated on 16 September, 2007
