South Africa’s financial market development rank has climbed to third in the World Economic Forum’s The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, from fourth in the prior year, scoring 5.7 out of 7.
The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) takes into account 12 pillars or drivers:
- institutions
- infrastructure
- macro-economic environment
- health and primary education
- higher education and training
- goods market efficiency
- labour market efficiency
- financial market development
- technological readiness
- market size
- business sophistication, and
- innovation
South Africa ranks well for financial market development
It’s an exceptional achievement for South Africa to be ranked in the top three in the world out of 144 economies for the financial market development pillar. When you look at it in more detail, the South African economy showed improvements across all eight categories within this pillar.
The table shows a comparison between the current report and that of the prior year:
* Values are on a 1-to-7 scale unless otherwise annotated with an asterisk (*)
A stable financial market that is well regulated not only attracts investors, but also indicates that a country like South Africa has developed financial market infrastructures that are on par with that of first world countries, offering market services in line with global best practice.
The resilience of South Africa’s financial market
As a financial markets infrastructure and as South Africa’s Central Securities Depository (CSD), it is Strate’s core duty to ensure that we facilitate risk mitigation through transparency, regulation, and those products and services that enhance investor protection, while contributing to the greater economy.
Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which ultimately led to the global financial crisis and trouble in the Eurozone, the ranking stands testament to the resilience of the South African financial environment.
Hong Kong and Singapore have continued to rank in the top two under financial market development in the World Economic Forum’s The Global Competitiveness Report, while Finland jumped to rank fourth in the index.
* Values are on a 1-to-7 scale unless otherwise annotated with an asterisk (*)
