samsings, I felt a bit bad for my closing remark about your contribution to South Africa being nothing more than your verbal diarrhea and wanted to apologize. But then I visited your blog and was surprised to see how spot on I was.

samsings is banned vegasboy.

I guess 56 hours for the re-incarnation.

Actually they aren't, but yours are.

In 1994 S.A's GDP grew 2.2 %. The highest year was 1965 at 8.9%. 2009 saw a -1.68$ shrinkage due to worldwide recession. For the 80's most years were negative growth. The longest period of extended growth was from 2002 until 2009 when we more than doubled our GDP. With only the world wide recession briefly putting a skid on things. The last 3 years have again seen 3% growth on average. I will give the link when it's possible for me to post links but google South Africa GDP growth and click on the first image if you like.

The GDP for the whole country in 1994 was 135,777 billion US$. Today it stands at over 450,000 billion $.

For that simply google south African gdp graph and click on google's graph.

Hello again, if its all so rosy, why has Standard and Poor classified SA growth as negative?
and that the Govt have declared a Budget Deficit of 4.5%?

Link please where anyone has stated S.A growth is negative. I mean that's absolutely absurd.

Let's keep things factual please. I mean standards and poor reduced S.A to a BBB credit rating (still above average from a BBB+). It also reduced the U.S.A BTW. If you don't know that's in no wat
yrelated to G.D.P and says absolutely nothing about negative growth (which absolutely no one claims with any credibility) you probably shouldn't be trying to debate economics. Don't just make stuff up and hope people will be too ignorant to notice.

And the 4.5% budget deficit is less than it was in 1994 by the way. In fact this is a low budget defecit relative to even most first world countries.

For those not in the know this is what Standards and Poor release in their own words.

A credit rating is Standard & Poor's opinion on the general creditworthiness of an obligor, or the creditworthiness of an obligor with respect to a particular debt security or other financial obligation.


A definition of GDP growth is...

GDP Growth Definition

Economic growth is the increase in value of the goods and services produced by an economy. It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or GDP. Growth is usually calculated in real terms, i.e. inflation-adjusted terms, in order to net out the effect of inflation on the price of the goods and services produced. In economics, "economic growth" or "economic growth theory" typically refers to growth of potential output, i.e., production at "full employment," which is caused by growth in aggregate demand or observed output.As economic growth is measured as the annual percent change of National Income it has all the advantages and drawbacks of that level variable. But people tend to attach a particular value to the annual percentage change, perhaps since it tells them what happens to their pay check.

Are you suggesting anyone claims our GDP growth is negative ? Ok, show me.

Trying to pull the wool over our eyes there mister ?

Regarding deficit...

The political transition in South Africa during 1994 took place against a backdrop of high government deficits (which peaked at 7.3% of GDP in 1992/93)


It was down to 2.2 % 2 years ago and even now the reason for it's increase...Lower than expected

Dennis Dykes, chief economist at Nedbank said the lower than expected deficit is a "positive signal".

“The outlook remains one of a widening current account balance rather than a contracting one, simply because domestic demand has been increasing at a faster rate than total output.

"That does tend to suggest that we will see a widening in the current account deficit going forward, which will be alright if it’s because of investment rather than consumption reasons but the jury is still out,” he said.

Christie Viljoen of NKC independent economists said the figure was good.

"A narrowing current account is always good and higher spending growth is also obviously good. The fact that it’s the government is not surprising as it just keeps spending more and more, but it’s good to see that households are also doing the same.

Links to follow when possible to post them.

I won't hold my breath for a link where anyone suggest S.A growth is negative, especially not one by "Standard and Poor" as they don't release anything related to GDP figures. I might be waiting another decade for the economy to turn negative like it did in 2009 after all .

I merely sked you a question based on this report this morning.
South Africa?s Fiscal Deficit Set to Be 4.5% for 2011-12 - Bloomberg

"Standard and Poor cut the outlook on the nation’s credit rating last week to negative as growth in Africa’s largest economy slows this year, making it harder for the government to rein in the fiscal deficit. The government unexpectedly lowered its target for the budget gap this fiscal year as tax revenue is forecast to rise.
Economic growth will slow to 2.7 percent this year from 3.1 percent last year, Gordhan said on Feb. 22. Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus revised the bank’s forecast higher to 3 percent on March 29, citing an improved global outlook.
The deficit is projected to be 4.6 percent of GDP in the year through March 2013, 4 percent in the 12 months through March 2014 and 3 percent in the year after that, according to the National Treasury on Feb. 22."

you really should not get so het up, Rooster,its not good for your health.

Any idea where they are going to get the money for the Electricity generation as well as the De-Salination Plants?