The Financial Services Sector in the Western Cape Paper prepared for the Microeconomic Development Strategy (MEDS) Department of Economic Development & Tourism Western Cape Government Stephen Gelb, Lyndal Keeton & Chris Malikane The EDGE Institute, Johannesburg
[email protected] Final draft: May 31 2005 Financial Services in the Western Cape: Profile, trends & issues 1 The EDGE Institute EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A. State of the sector in the Western Cape 1. Economic activity: The average contribution of financial services to provincial GDP between 1995 and 2003 was 12.3%, 3rd largest in the province of 26 sectors. Growth of financial services sector in the Western Cape was been 6.11% per annum. The Western Cape contributes 21.7% to financial services output nationally. Investment in the FIRE – finance, insurance, real estate and business services –sector1 has dominated GFCF in the Western Cape province, averaging 32.7% of total investment, with an investment rate (investment as a share of sector value-added) averaging 23.7%, well above the national average rate. Since 2000, however, the sector’s investment has been less vigorous than before. 2. Employment: The sector employed over 65000 people in the province in 2003, 5% of formal employment. Sectoral employment has grown at 1.1% per annum, while overall formal sector employment has declined. Since employment growth has been much slower than output growth, labour productivity has risen with capital intensity. Financial services employment in the province is heavily skewed towards insurance with 58% of the labour force, while the banking sector provides 31% and the securities trading segment 11%.