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The impact of SA's municipal challenges on local economic development

The upcoming local elections put municipal performance under the spotlight. This BER Research Note explores some of the underlying problems that contribute to local government failure and the poor state of service delivery in many municipalities. Without the infrastructure and basic services that municipalities should provide, local economic development is likely to remain constrained. This makes it more difficult to broaden economic participation and reverse South Africa’s unemployment trend.

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Having slipped from -9 to -13 index points during the second quarter of 2021, the FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) recovered some lost ground to -10 in the third quarter of 2021.