SA economy: the good, the bad and the ugly

Despite a swift jobs rebound after SA's strict lockdown, permanent economic scarring due to Covid-

19 in an already fragile economy will likely cause unemployment to keep rising, even as the pandemic

fades

The good news is that between July and September, the SA economy added back 500,000 jobs lost in

the second quarter during the harshest part of the lockdown a recovery rate of about one in four.

This leaves SA's net loss of jobs at about 1.7-million, down from 2.2-million in the first quarter,

according to Stats SA's most recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). It means that after the

havoc wrought by the pandemic, SA's official (narrow) unemployment rate is now 30.8% compared

with 30.1% in the first quarter, slightly better than many forecasts...

Source: https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2020-11-19-sa-economy-the-good-the-bad-and-

the-ugly/

Question:

Discuss the performance of the South African economy under the following variables: (45)

Aggregate Output (Economic Growth)

Price Stability (Inflation)

Unemployment (Changes in Employment)

Balance of Payments (Status of Foreign Transactions)

Distribution of Income (Income Shares of different groups of the population