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An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?

Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.

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Other Authors: Saville, Adrian
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Saville, Adrian
author_browse Saville, Adrian
author_facet Saville, Adrian
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:36:17.013Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/23126 An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little? Saville, Adrian ichelp@gibs.co.za Du Plessis, Germien UCTD Finance Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. Savings plays an important role as a national buffer against international capital fluctuations and as a critical ingredient for economic growth. South Africa has a low national savings rate by international standards, an outcome that has flowed from a declining trend in domestic savings in recent years, to the point where the South African Reserve Bank reported that households had started to dis-save during 2006 and 2007. In view of the importance of savings, the state of South African savings is cause for concern. The determinants of household saving have been examined extensively in the literature on savings behaviour. The application of the theoretical determinants of savings to specific economies, however, has been the subject of debate as a result of the dynamic nature of savings behaviour and the fact that the interaction between theoretical savings determinants (and therefore the anticipated savings behaviour outcome) is influenced by country-specific social, demographic and economic conditions. Accordingly, this paper seeks to distil the determinants of South African household savings behaviour with reference to the expert opinions of South African economists, to gain an understanding of the actions to be taken in order to improve the savings behaviour of South African households. The key findings of the study indicate that South African household savings are impacted negatively by the prevalence of an aspirational culture in which consumption is encouraged by access to credit facilitated by South Africa’s sophisticated financial sector. In addition, governmental policies with regard to wealth distribution and welfare payments contribute to the creation of a culture of dependence and a reduction in household savings. The outcome of the study has various policy implications, including the proposals that government should be engaged to increase financial education of consumers and that the use of fiscal tools (such as tax incentives to encourage savings) and compulsory savings schemes, should be considered. Copyright Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) unrestricted 2013-09-06T14:36:47Z 2010-04-21 2013-09-06T14:36:47Z 2008-11-13 2010-04-21 2010-03-12 Dissertation Du Plessis, G 2008, An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?, MBA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23126 > G10/19/mh http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23126 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03122010-141825/ © 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Finance
An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title_full An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title_fullStr An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title_full_unstemmed An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title_short An exploration of the determinants of South Africa’s personal savings rate - Why do South African households save so little?
title_sort exploration of the determinants of south africa s personal savings rate why do south african households save so little
topic UCTD
Finance
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23126
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03122010-141825/