South Africans have their say about the government's performance regarding the economy

Fewer South Africans than a year ago believe that government is performing well in terms of controlling inflation, encouraging international investment and managing the economy.

This is according to the latest results from the Government Performance Barometer that Ipsos Markinor conducts bi-annually. A total of 3 500 respondents, scientifically selected to be representative of South Africa’s adult population (18-years and older) and which included all types of communities, were interviewed in November 2007. Personal face-to-face interviews were conducted by experienced interviewers in the home language of respondents.

Questions were asked on how well the government was performing in terms of managing the economy, controlling inflation and encouraging international investment.

Percentage saying the government’s performance is “very well” or “fairly well” in regard to:

On the eve of the budget speech, it is revealed that South Africans have lost faith in the government’s performance in managing the economy, judging from their performance over the past year. Government has received its lowest performance score in 5 years, where just under half (49%) believe that the government is performing very or fairly well in managing the economy. This is a trend that emerged amongst all race groups in South Africa.

(Click on image to enlarge)

A similar finding emerged for South Africans’ perceptions regarding the government’s ability to control inflation and encourage international investment. The perception of the government’s ability to control inflation very or fairly well has dropped in the past year from 54% in November 2006 to 38% in November 2007. This drop in perception of performance can be attributed to the CPIX index continually remaining above the government’s expected 3 to 6% target range. This means that interest rate hikes have caused the majority of the general public to doubt that the government is controlling inflation effectively enough. More interestingly, the general public’s perception of government’s non-performance in controlling inflation is inversely related to the CPIX data trends. Therefore, when inflation data figures are high, perception of the government’s performance in this regard is low. When inflation data figures are low, government’s performance is rated more positively.



(Click on image to enlarge)

Lastly, 3 out of every 20 South Africans (15%) do not believe that the government is performing as well as a year ago to encourage international investment. Currently, the population can be split into two groups of a size with regard to perception of the government’s performance to encourage international investment, with the very or fairly well group being slightly dominant (54%). Black and white South Africans are slightly more positive than the Indians and Coloureds in this regard.