Question

Two benchmark criteria used by south Africa to evaluate the economy

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

The data used for comparing South Africa’s performance comes from the World

Bank research data base that was recently developed with a specific objective to

be used for this type of benchmarking exercise (Eustache and Goicoechea, 2005).

2

The database pulls together the latest available observations from a number of

well documented, specialized data sources that contain more detailed data with

longitudinal information. The data base aims to measure sector performance by

focusing on sector outcomes–access, affordability/pricing, and quality (technical or perceived). It also provides information on sector institutional reform.

Data covers 207 countries (although coverage varies by sector and indicator)1

with a limited number of variables2 measuring sector outcomes.

For the purpose of benchmarking South Africa, we compare it with all

the world geographical comparator groups—Sub-Saharan Africa, OECD, South

Asia, East Asia & Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the

Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, and the world–and four groups of countries clustered by level of income per capita–low income, middle income, upper middle income, and OECD countries. Therefore, both region and income

level are used as comparator criteria. The main benchmarking group on which

much of the analysis is focused is South Africa’s per capita income group of

upper middle-income countries. Because of the strong association between infrastructure and income level, this is economically the most meaningful group

comparator for South Africa. This is supplemented by relevant comparisons

with other income groups and major regions of the world to provide a wider,

geographical comparison of South Africa’s infrastructure performance. Finally,

from the aforementioned data base we use the available indicators for electricity

(7), water & sanitation (4), and most of the broader group of indicators for

information communication technology (13) and transport (10). For our purpose, the benchmarking is limited to sector performance indicators. Detailed

benchmarking is presented in Tables 1-4. We do not use nor discuss institutional

reform indicators that are also available in the database, and are subject of a

separate exercise.

A THANKS AND FOLLOW ME