GIBS Foreword: The capacity of a nation to save – through its citizens,
companies and the public sector – is strongly related
to its ability to achieve elevated, sustained and inclusive
economic growth and social development. South Africa’s
poor track record when it comes to recent years is
of growing concern, and remedies to address our
lacklustre performance need to be at the fore of our
collective agendas.
Significantly improving responsible performance on the
part of both individuals and organisations is core to
our GIBS mission. Without the production of applied
scholarship dedicated to investigating the levers of
performance that will drive South Africa forward and
enable its people and country to reach their inherent
potential, selecting appropriate paths of action is difficult.
The generation of thought leadership is integral to any
business school. At GIBS we seek to focus on applied
research that not only contributes to scholarship, but is
relevant to practitioners alike.
The Investec GIBS Savings Index, prepared by
Associate Professor Adrian Saville, provides a
much needed tool to deconstruct, critically evaluate,
and track the key drivers of South Africa’s performance
when it comes to saving. The resulting study goes
beyond providing a comprehensive analysis that shows
South Africa’s poor performance when it comes to
saving behaviour. It highlights the importance of moving
from growth that relies on consumer consumption
and government spending to growth that stems from
increased levels of investments and exports. It shows
that current trends in investment are way below what
is required to fuel sustained and inclusive economic
growth. Saville provides compelling evidence to show
why the decline in gross domestic savings as a % of
GDP must be reversed.
Our role at GIBS is to elevate management performance
through high quality education. We thank Investec,
one of our corporate partners who play a critical role
in funding scholarly research. This report provides
compelling evidence to show what’s needed. Our
collective challenge is to convert knowledge into action if
we are to progress.
Professor Nicola Kleyn
Dean of GIBS
Investec Foreword: South Africa’s (SA) poor savings rate over the last two
decades has been no secret, however, the importance
of savings to fuel investment for sustained economic
growth is less understood.
At Investec, one of our core philosophies is to make a
contribution to society, macro-economic stability and
the environment. Our approach includes a strong focus
on education and entrepreneurship. As such, we believe
it is important that we not only raise awareness of the
poor savings rate but also drive a discussion from a
corporate, economic, academic and social perspective
on how we can challenge the convention and approach
this task.
We have therefore partnered with the Gordon Institute
of Business Science (GIBS) to provide the research
to form the foundation for further debate and through
the Investec GIBS Savings Index we hope to increase
awareness in all sectors of the importance of taking
action to improve South Africa’s savings.
The index aims to provide the following:
(1) Research the real facts behind the structural
decline of SA’s national savings rate
(2) Create an aspirational national savings benchmark
to support SA’s economic growth objectives
(3) Measure the performance of the SA economy in
terms of its critical savings components
(4) Call to action for all sectors of SA’s society to
make a positive contribution to SA’s savings culture
On a personal note, I have been involved in the savings
and investment industry for close to a decade and have
seen numerous initiatives from industry to improve the
awareness of the importance of savings at an individual
level. However, in my view, we have not focused enough
on the environmental factors or savings influences that
impact the general population’s ability to save. My hope
is that the Investec GIBS Savings Index and the research
behind it will assist in a call to action to all stakeholders in
addressing the savings trap that we are caught in as
a nation.
René Grobler
Head of Investec Cash Investments
