A note on equity returns for South African investors

Abstract

On a historical basis, South African equity markets have outperformed inflation significantly. Using returns from the 2016 version of the Credit Suisse Global Investment Sourcebook1, I observe that over the period 1900 to 2015, the annualised real return (i.e. returns adjusted for inflation) for South African equities was 7.3% compared to 1.8% for bonds and 1.0% for shorter-term bills. I compare these returns with US annual real returns of 6.4% for equities, 2.0% for bonds, and 0.8% for bills over the same period.