StatsSA has been criticized for claiming that the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product recovery is recovering at a healthy 4.6% annualised growth rate by SAFTU on Tuesday. The South African Federation of Trade Unions said for those in Treasury and the Reserve Bank who brag, these seems impressive compared to 2020’s -7% GDP decline.
The headline figure focused only on a bogus variable, GDP, that – as a measure of goods and services produced. In a statement the union said the StatsSAstatistic has entirely ignored the country’s depreciating equipment.
“Wear and tear on machines, women’s unpaid work, pollution damage and especially the depletion of our natural wealth that is stripped out as minerals and only counted as income,”
“So, at the same time as the fake-economy rises, the amount of Gross Fixed Capital Formation in South Africa actually declined, StatsSA admits, “at a rate of 2,6%,” SAFTU said.
According to SAFTU the main contributor to the decrease was machinery and equipment.
“This translates to a “contribution to growth in GDP” of -0.4%. In short, our productive capital is still shrinking and unemployment is at a record level, of at least 43.2% using the expanded definition,”
“To make matters worse, the kind of GDP growth the government can claim is based on fake-economic prosperity in which the activity is parasitical or so volatile we cannot count on it continuing.” SAFTU said.
