Investments

Putting a tough year behind us

It’s official. 2016 truly was a terrible year. According to StatsSA, gross domestic product (GDP), a broad measure of a country’s economic activity, declined by 0.3% in the fourth quarter after inflation. For the year as a whole, GDP growth was barely positive at 0.3%, the slowest expansion in a calendar year since the 1.5% decline in 2009. Chart 1 also shows how growth declined every year since 2012. At least things never got as bad as in Brazil, where it was announced last week that GDP contracted by 3.6% in 2016, the second consecutive negative year.

South Africa’s slow progress

Cape Town sits at the southern tip of Africa, and is just one corner of a tremendously diverse nation. There are 11 official languages in South Africa: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.

Should investors shun equities after the whirlwind 2016?

Despite volatility in equity markets, investors should still guard against trying to time the markets, or getting out of equities at the wrong time.

Ashburton Investments’ major investment themes and how they are playing them