JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's latest Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index shows that while households felt some relief in the first half of 2025, real financial recovery remains painfully slow.
The index improved 2.3 percent year-on-year, helped by modest interest-rate cuts but average resilience has barely grown since the rate-hiking cycle began.
Population growth, high borrowing costs and rising debt-servicing burdens continue to erode household finances.
And despite the two-pot pension system injecting nearly R13-billion into the economy, analysts warn that this boost artificially inflated incomes.
Fifteen of the index's 20 indicators strengthened in the second quarter, with unit trust assets and disposable income showing solid gains.
But economists say more aggressive rate cuts are urgently needed, with GDP growth for 2025 expected to struggle below 1.3 percent.