2022 in review: A financial juggling act
Most South Africans are ending 2022 trying to work out where their money went – amid rising living costs, inflation, and interest rates, the Drive with Rob and Roz takes a look at the financial year that was.
Times of war
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a ripple effect on world markets throughout the year.
The war not only affected things like brent crude prices, but also daily essentials like cooking oil and wheat.
As world powers tightened sanctions on Russia in the wake of the war, consumers around the globe felt the pinch.
The South African government tried to cushion the impact through a reduction of the fuel levy, but this was temporary and eventually lapsed.
Cost of living, inflation, and interest rate hikes
The cost of living kept rising with inflation reflecting this. The Reserve Banks’ reaction was to keep hiking interest rates – in line with international practice. This certainly led to additional pain for anyone with debt but was seen as necessary medicine.
Unemployment
It does not help that millions of South Africans are unemployed – and unemployment reached record highs in August.
By the end of the year, the official unemployment rate was 32.9% with the expanded unemployment rate (including those who are no longer actively looking for work) at a staggering 43.1% of the country’s working-age population.
Covid relief and a basic income grant
During the Covid pandemic, the government introduced a basic relief of distress grant of R350 a month.
This grant was meant to be temporary but kept being extended – by the end of the year, the pressure was mounting for this to be converted into some kind of permanent basic income grant.
Making sense of it all
The Drive with Rob and Roz introduced a basic shopping basket in August to try and make sense of sometimes complex financial principles.
The team drew up a basic basket of groceries that, while not representative of a full month's - or even week’s – need, will be serving as a benchmark for how much the price of basic goods is changing every month.
Each payday, they shop the same basket at three major retailers that offer online shopping to see which retailer is the cheapest, how much prices are fluctuating month-on-month, where the best specials are each month, and what this tells us about financial developments in the country and world.
Together with this, the team often uses its News Extended slot – aka Explained well with Christelle – just after 18:00 to talk through financial developments and what they mean with JacaNews Newscast Editor and news anchor for The Drive with Rob and Roz, Christelle du Toit. Here they have tacked everything from buying a house, to Black Friday and Singles’ Day, and what jobs pay more than R2 million a year – so at least we know what to plan for in the new year.
Tune in to the 'The Drive with Rob & Roz', on weekdays from 16:00 - 19:00. Stream the show live here or download our mobile app here.