2017 was basically a whole year to not remember regarding the economic wellness of a lot of South Africans, but nevertheless what is considered the forecast for the rest of 2018? Many will have constructed a listing of budgetary resolutions for the New Year, and with suffering GDP growth rates, stagnating career development, ever-increasing numbers of unemployment and also astonishingly increased levels of earnings and prosperity inequality all plaguing the country in the second portion of the calendar year, South African consumers may well want them. Unemployment Unemployment has grown steadily from 4.6 million in 2011 to 5.9 million in 2016 and unfortunately, although this increase has slowed, unemployment is expected to continue to grow to 7.2 million by the end of 2018. That means, if current economic and employment trends set to continue, there’ll be around 1.3 million more unemployed at the end of 2018 than there were in 2016. Official figures show that joblessness has risen in seven of the nine provinces, with the highest rate of unemployment in Free State province and the lowest in Western Cape. Economic growth According to the data, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates have fallen from 3.3 percent in 2012 to just 0.3 percent in 2016. Although GDP growth is expected to be below 1 percent for 2017, the central bank forecasts it will rise to 1.5 percent in 2018. While this represents a slow recovery which is unlikely to prevent a further increase in unemployment, at least things are starting to move in the right direction. Financial wellness Given the constant downgrading of economic growth expectations for 2017 and 2018, household finances will fail to recover and the financial wellness index, which takes into account seven aspects of an individual’s financial situation, is also like to stagnate. Financial wellness measures everything from an individual’s household material deprivation and hardship to their financial confidence …
New Personal Loans that Give South Africans More Control Over Long Term Lending
South Africa, March 24th, 2018 - A new loan product that could change the way you borrow money. Traditionally, if you wanted a loan you would have to walk into a high street bank, complete reams of paperwork and wait weeks for the money to hit your account. However, now online loan companies like Wonga are offering quicker solutions which allow consumers to take back control of their finances. There are many reasons you might need a personal loan, however you may find that searching for one with the right repayment period proves difficult. Wonga traditionally offer payday loans, which you pay back usually within a month. This is ideal if you have a sudden, quick bill or payment to process, but not if you want a bit longer to repay. Other loan companies might offer personal loans that last several years – you can get 3, 5 or even 10 year personal loans. This, on the other end of the spectrum, means you are saddled with this debt for much longer. What customers often want is something in between. This consumer need resulted in the creation of the Wonga personal loan which lasts up to 6 months. First time customers can receive anything up to R4000 which is paid back monthly in 6 equal installments. You can use Wonga’s website slider to decide how much you can borrow and for how long, offering 100% transparency for customers – something which Wonga pride themselves on. The 6 month personal loan provides the flexibility of longer term credit without the long term commitment required by other lenders. For instance, nedbank.co.za offers R4000 loans for a minimum of 12 months which results in a total repayment of R6261. Longer loan terms are perfect for some customers, but for some this is the type of long term commitment some borrowers aren’t looking for. If you want to repay the loan sooner, Wonga operates a policy that encourages early repayment on loans to help customers avoid paying too much interest. This is in an effort to help consumers …