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Top 10% in South Africa earns 60 times more than bottom 50%

South Africa is now one of the most unequal countries in the world with the top 10% earning 60 times more than the bottom 50%, according to the latest World Inequality Report.

The report says while the richest South Africans have wealth levels broadly comparable with those of affluent Western Europeans, the bottom 50% in South Africa own no wealth at all.

“The top 10% own close to 86% of total wealth and the share of the bottom 50% is negative, meaning that the group has more debts than assets. Since 1990, the average household wealth for the bottom 50% has remained under zero,” the report says.

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This post was last modified on April 5, 2022 9:19 pm

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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