Fourthly, the amnesty process facilitated the repatriation of funds to South Africa. Applicants paid a total of R 2,87 billion in amnesty levies in respect of unauthorised foreign assets. These levies amount to some 0,7 per cent of total tax collections of the central government in the 2005/06 fiscal year, and to some 2,3 per cent of personal income tax for the same period.
The unemployment rate, for example, has declined to a 30-year low. By some estimates, the output gap is the widest since the early-1970s. The duration of the expansion is about to set a record. It is therefore not surprising that cyclically sensitive variables are behaving exceptionally by historical standards.