Re: S. Africa plans second nuclear power plant
Patrick Bond wrote:
Growth is not ‘rapid’ (since 1994 it barely exceeded the population growth rate, itself decimated by AIDS); neoliberalism here meant virtually no investments/upgrading by parastatals or other state agencies. If anyone wants data, let me know.
Here’s what the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database has to say. Average annual growth rate in per capita GDP for SA, 1994-2004, in constant rand: 1.2%. If you use 1990 as the base year, the performance is much worse: 0.3%. Since 1990 and 1994 - base year doesn’t matter much here - investment has averaged under 17% of GDP; for China, it’s been 39%; India, 23%; and the US, 18%. So, SA is investing less than a rich mature economy when it should be investing more like China & India.
Doug