Claire Bisseker

SA journalist. Economics editor of the Financial Mail, author of "On the Brink", mother of three amazing daughters, and lover of wild mountain places

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Articles

Why South Africa’s universities are in trouble

3 weeks ago | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

After years of being a burden on the taxpayer, the national airline goes smaller but better, with plans for sustained profitability
How South Africa can tame its debt beast

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

South Africa has suffered through three budgets in three months. The debacle nearly broke the GNU, has undermined the authority of the National Treasury, and unnerved society. Was it all worth it? The short answer is yes, maybe, but only if upcoming budgets show that the government realises it cannot continue to hike taxes or increase borrowing each year to compensate for a failure to make hard political trade-offs over things that endlessly inflate the size of the state...
ROBERT BOTHA AND CLAIR BISSEKER: Official debt numbers are fixated on, but how indebted is SA really?

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Robert Botha |Claire Bisseker

“They have fiddled the figures!” exclaimed former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak in response to Rachel Reeves’s maiden budget as chancellor of the exchequer last year. His accusation related to how public debt is defined and measured. Indeed, how debt is measured plays a role in how fiscal policy is managed. The “fiddle” that so outraged Sunak increased the UK government’s scope to borrow without changing the debt target or limit set out in the UK’s fiscal rules...
The times are getting tougher

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has finally been forced to do what he should have done from the start — concede to scrapping the VAT hike and tabling a less expansive budget. He now has a third opportunity to get the 2025 budget right. But will he take it? The problem with both the budget withdrawn in February (Budget 1.0) and the one subsequently presented in March (Budget 2.0) was that they slapped three-year shopping list on the table of more than R230bn...
ANJA SMITH AND CLAIRE BISSEKER: With NHI uncertain, we must work with what we have

2 months ago | businesslive.co.za | Anja Smith |Claire Bisseker

Before the ANC adopted NHI at its Polokwane conference in 2007 SA had been preparing full throttle for social health insurance. This model would have involved thegradual extension of health insurance from the medical scheme population of about 8.9-million people to all 11.7-million formally employed. Now about 26% of the employed, or roughly 4.3-million South Africans (excluding dependants), have medical aid through their employer, but this cover is not mandatory.
NICOLAAS VAN DER WATH AND CLAIRE BISSEKER: Why fixed investment is the greatest thing since sliced bread

2 months ago | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

Though inflation-tracking indices are normally used to calculate a real (inflation-adjusted) GDP value, these deflators are subject to their own challenges. For one, the extraordinary drop in computer and data costs over the past decade drags our trackers down, thereby overstating the growth in GDP.  This is why a simple, standardised item that retains its characteristics over time — such as a loaf of bread — can serve as a novel but useful control measure.
Risks abound as South Africa wades into murky waters

Mar 19, 2025 | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

From best-selling books to a hit TV series, Sally Andrew’s beloved mystery stories celebrate Karoo cuisine, kindness and small-town life
ROY HAVEMANN AND CLAIRE BISSEKER: Make the SA budget predictable and dull again

Feb 27, 2025 | businesslive.co.za | Roy Havemann |Claire Bisseker

Who would have thought that Barbra Streisand Barbara Streisand and the National Treasury would have anything in common? After the aborted budget last week, the Treasury briefly tried to ban the 2025 Budget Review. Within minutes, the document was on WhatsApp groups. It has been one of the most read budgets in years.   This is known as the Streisand effect — if you try to ban something, it only draws attention to it.
Why South Africa cannot let this crisis go to waste

Feb 26, 2025 | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

The National Treasury has suffered the indignity of having its 2025 budget rejected by the cabinet on the very day of the budget, but it is possible the fallout could lead to a strengthening of the country’s fiscal architecture and more decisive policymaking. It could even accelerate the pace of economic reform. Consider, for starters, that the cabinet is now being forced to confront the disparity between its expansive policy agenda and the country’s limited means.
Reality check: The real story behind the matric results

Jan 29, 2025 | businesslive.co.za | Claire Bisseker

The steep rise in the matric pass rate to a record high of 87.3% in 2024 has been hailed by the department of basic education (DBE) as evidence of a “system on the rise” and as proof that schooling in South Africa “is at its healthiest ever”. This rose-tinted view needs to be punctured. For though there is evidence of improvement — more learners are passing maths than ever before and the gap between rich and poor schools is closing — the big picture remains depressing...