HOUSEHOLD WEALTH

South African household wealth has decreased by R1.528 trillion since the first quarter of the year to R15.5 trillion (just under 10%), according to the Momentum/ Unisa South African Household Wealth Index for the third quarter of 2022, Most of this decline came in the second quarter when households lost R1.275 trillion. Johann van Tonder from Momentum says: “The decline in household wealth was caused by a decrease in the value of assets, specifically financial assets. Several factors contributed to the decline: the most prominent of these were the fast and large increases in interest rates all over the world in an attempt to combat high inflation rates, and an expectation of a world economic recession.”