In the Budget Review Document, it was indicated that total Government debt as at the end of February 1997 amounted to R309.5 billion, equal to 55.3 per cent of gross domestic product. This is a relatively large deficit for a country with a relatively low overall savings ratio, and with massive needs for the development of infrastructure.
But unlike in much of the nineteenth century, little unfettered competition is actually practiced in today’s world. In large part, driven by the value standards of our societies that developed out of the Great Depression, some government regulation is practiced virtually everywhere.