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This is the Economics Report from VOA Learning English. |
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A new report is praising South Africa |
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for its economic growth over the past 20 years. |
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The report comes from the banking company Goldman Sachs. |
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It decided to examine South Africa's economic progress |
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since the end of white minority rule in 1994. |
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Colin Coleman works for the company. |
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"South Africa in the last year has tended to have a motional, |
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somewhat negative reaction both domestically and internationally. |
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And my view is that we needed to kind of get some perspective |
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on the past 20 years as to what's been achieved |
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in order to get a better balance in the debate," said Colin Coleman. |
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The report notes changes to the South African economy |
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over the past 20 years. |
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"When you look back at what Nelson Mandela inherited |
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in May when he became president, it was really bitter pill, |
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because you had an indebted nation that had no money. |
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There was growing below-population growth |
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with huge unemployment, huge racial disparities, |
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a very volatile political social environment. |
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Effectively, that gave way to a golden period of growth, |
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low inflation, bringing the debt down and an extraordinary performance |
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until the global financial crisis," Coleman said. |
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The report says the amount of money collected in taxes |
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increased from $114 billion in 1994 to $814 billion. |
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South Africans are not always happy about the direction of the economy, |
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but business leaders and economists were pleased |
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to see a long-term look at some of the improvements. |
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Joanne Yawitch heads the National Business Initiative, |
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the organization works on efforts to help strengthening the economy. |
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"There's often a lot of doom and gloom talk about South Africa, |
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but what the report did point out |
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is some fairly of significant achievements over the last 20 years. |
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In particular, there has been an increase in productivity, |
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an increase in employment, |
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there has been a huge increase in the number of people in the middle class. |
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Quite a substantial improvement |
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in the quality of life of a great number of people," said Joanne Yawitch. |
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But the country still has problems. |
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The report notes South Africa's education system continues to struggle, |
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and the unemployment rate remains at about 24 percent. |
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It says 70 percent of those jobless people are under age 34. |
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There are also great racial inequality, especially in terms of earnings. |
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The reports says 85 percent of blacks are poor, |
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while 87 percent of whites are middle to upper class. |
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There have been criticisms of the report. |
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Some people say it depends heavily on general information, |
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not cultural evidence. |
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When Yawitch agrees with some of the criticisms, |
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but she says the report shows the country has come a long way. |
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"I think the reality certainly for me |
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- I mean I grew up under apartheid and have spent 20 years in this democracy |
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- is that life in South Africa is a lot better for most people than it ever was. |
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But there are very, very big things that still have to happen. |
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And I think that's what the report draws our attention to, |
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is that it's a long journey and that we've made progress |
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and must carry on," Yawitch said. " |
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And that's the Economics Report. |
