JOHANNESBURG - South African households were experiencing some relief toward the end of last year.
But the Altron Fintech Household Resilience index points to a fragile recovery.
Authors have questioned why the Reserve Bank raised interest rates when higher rates are likely to put households under pressure again.
Household resilience measures, including wealth to income, income to debt, salaries, employment and rises or falls in house prices.
The index shows that households have become more resilient since it began in 2014.
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But the gains have matched population growth, implying little real improvement.
The Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index says the number of people in South Africa with formal jobs is more or less the same as the number of unemployed people.
According to the index, there were 12.1 million people with formal jobs during the first quarter of this year.
This was only slightly higher than the 12 million unemployed people.