By Dr Adrian Saville, Chief Strategist, Citadel On Sunday evening, President Zuma delivered a second major surprise to capital markets in the space of just five days by announcing that, after receiving numerous representations to reconsider the...
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The economy: what to expect in 2016
By Sanisha Packirisamy (Economist) and Herman van Papendorp (Head of macro research) at MMI Holdings. Global central banks to remain in the spotlight We are likely to see a further desynchronisation in major global economies in 2016 as a firmer...
Retirement reform going ahead
By Vickie Lange, Institutional Best Practice Specialist at Alexander Forbes Last year the tax changes to all retirement funds and the retirement benefit changes to provident funds (together known as T-day changes) which were originally scheduled...
Why the SARB should keep on nudging rates up
By John Loos, FNB Household and Property Sector Strategist There is little current pressure on the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to hike interest rates this week, at least from a current inflation point of view....
Government Employees Pension Fund adopts clean-break principle
Six years after the clean-break principle was introduced into legislation in 2009, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has introduced the principle allowing the non-member spouses of pension-fund members to access their share of pension...
Will you be paying more tax next year?
Seven things worth knowing from the medium term budget policy statement. Despite student protests outside parliament, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene released the medium term budget policy statement. Here are some points worth highlighting: Not...
The dubious world of credit insurance
Chickens are coming home to roost for the credit insurance industry. Last month the National Credit Regulator (NCR) referred the financial services arm of JD Group to the National Consumer Tribunal for the mis-selling of credit life policies,...
Is a wealth tax likely for South Africa?
Professor Matthew Lester weighs in on a wealth tax and whether it is a solution to South Africa's revenue needs. The Davis Tax Committee (DTC) believes that a wealth tax for South Africans is not the universal solution to South Africa’s revenue...
Sleepwalking to retirement
Proposals by National Treasury aim to simplify retirement savings and reduce costs. National Treasury recently released its latest paper on retirement reform entitled Retirement reform: lowering charges and improving market conduct in which it...
Interest rate increase could make consumers more vulnerable
By Sanisha Packirisamy, economist at Momentum Asset Management. It is clear that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) remains aware of the potential negative local effect of a rise in US rates should the US decide to hike rates this year. In the...
Previous Articles
What the government is doing really well in the power sector
By Rob Spanjaard, Director: Rezco Asset Management. In the fog of confusion caused by the chaos at Eskom, we lose sight of what the government has done really well in the area of power generation. Perhaps this could provide a model to get out of the morass that we are...
Court mediation available to over-indebted consumers
Consumers in Gauteng and the North West who are not able to pay their debts and who are being taken to court by credit providers can now request the magistrate to refer the matter to court mediation. Magistrates will also encourage parties to go for mediation on any...
Do household savings really impact SA’s economic growth?
According to the National Development Plan (NDP), the South African economy needs to grow by 5.4% or more to create enough jobs to redress inequality and resolve the country's stubbornly high unemployment rate. In order to reach and sustain this target, South Africa...
Retirement reform myths: time for a rethink
The phased reform of South Africa's retirement sector may have a far-reaching impact on retirees – especially those who have not recently assessed their strategy. While many of the mooted retirement reforms will only be implemented next year, one of the first changes,...
The high cost of insuring your loan
Despite an investigation into the rates charged by credit providers for insurance, borrowers are still paying high rates for their credit insurance. If you were stuck for cash and needed to borrow R5 000 which you would pay back over just four months, how much do you...
Paying for overspending
We will spend R18 000 per taxpayer this year on government debt repayments As I listened to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s budget speech it struck me that our government is in a very similar situation to most South African households. Over the last five years, our...
The death of the independent adviser
Despite assurances to the contrary, the recommendations contained in the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) released by the Financial Services Board will make it more challenging for a financial adviser to operate as an independent. As the recommendations stand, many...
Concerns with eFiling and erroneous tax registration
Concerns about SARS eFiling have been raised in the first annual report issued by the Office of the Tax Ombud. In several cases bank details were changed on the eFiling system resulting in a refunds being paid into a third-party bank account. In other cases fraudulent...
What you need to know about the 2014 Medium-term Budget in 500 words
Expect unhappy public servants and higher taxes. Like most household budgets, government is running out of money and credit lines and the only choice now is to cut consumption and still try squeeze a bit more out of taxpayers. In the words of Finance Minister Nhlanhla...
Time for the SARB to go on hold?
By Nazmeera Moola, economist and strategist, Investec Asset Management Consumers should be able to sleep somewhat easier in the next few months, as we have most likely seen the last interest rate hikes for 2014. This is partially due to the weak economic outlook. We...