[00:00.100]This is the Economics Report from VOA Learning English.
[00:05.980]A new report is praising South Africa
[00:08.920]for its economic growth over the past 20 years.
[00:12.790]The report comes from the banking company Goldman Sachs.
[00:17.790]It decided to examine South Africa's economic progress
[00:22.790]since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
[00:27.900]Colin Coleman works for the company.
[00:30.760]"South Africa in the last year has tended to have a motional,
[00:34.270]somewhat negative reaction both domestically and internationally.
[00:39.500]And my view is that we needed to kind of get some perspective
[00:44.050]on the past 20 years as to what's been achieved
[00:47.490]in order to get a better balance in the debate," said Colin Coleman.
[00:50.660]The report notes changes to the South African economy
[00:55.120]over the past 20 years.
[00:57.340]"When you look back at what Nelson Mandela inherited
[01:01.140]in May when he became president, it was really bitter pill,
[01:06.510]because you had an indebted nation that had no money.
[01:10.170]There was growing below-population growth
[01:12.970]with huge unemployment, huge racial disparities,
[01:15.330]a very volatile political social environment.
[01:18.470]Effectively, that gave way to a golden period of growth,
[01:21.530]low inflation, bringing the debt down and an extraordinary performance
[01:26.470]until the global financial crisis," Coleman said.
[01:29.270]The report says the amount of money collected in taxes
[01:32.540]increased from $114 billion in 1994 to $814 billion.
[01:41.620]South Africans are not always happy about the direction of the economy,
[01:47.010]but business leaders and economists were pleased
[01:50.780]to see a long-term look at some of the improvements.
[01:54.740]Joanne Yawitch heads the National Business Initiative,
[01:59.120]the organization works on efforts to help strengthening the economy.
[02:04.220]"There's often a lot of doom and gloom talk about South Africa,
[02:07.690]but what the report did point out
[02:10.750]is some fairly of significant achievements over the last 20 years.
[02:15.330]In particular, there has been an increase in productivity,
[02:19.460]an increase in employment,
[02:22.110]there has been a huge increase in the number of people in the middle class.
[02:25.380]Quite a substantial improvement
[02:29.680]in the quality of life of a great number of people," said Joanne Yawitch.
[02:33.460]But the country still has problems.
[02:36.520]The report notes South Africa's education system continues to struggle,
[02:42.060]and the unemployment rate remains at about 24 percent.
[02:47.040]It says 70 percent of those jobless people are under age 34.
[02:53.960]There are also great racial inequality, especially in terms of earnings.
[03:00.280]The reports says 85 percent of blacks are poor,
[03:04.610]while 87 percent of whites are middle to upper class.
[03:09.500]There have been criticisms of the report.
[03:12.430]Some people say it depends heavily on general information,
[03:16.750]not cultural evidence.
[03:19.040]When Yawitch agrees with some of the criticisms,
[03:22.360]but she says the report shows the country has come a long way.
[03:27.210]"I think the reality certainly for me
[03:30.070]- I mean I grew up under apartheid and have spent 20 years in this democracy
[03:35.130]- is that life in South Africa is a lot better for most people than it ever was.
[03:38.440]But there are very, very big things that still have to happen.
[03:43.960]And I think that's what the report draws our attention to,
[03:46.800]is that it's a long journey and that we've made progress
[03:51.900]and must carry on," Yawitch said. "
[03:53.270]And that's the Economics Report.