Economy of the Western Cape

Economy of Western Cape


Clockwise from top: A panel from the frescoes in the Assembly Room, Mutual Building in Cape Town, painted by Le Roux Smith in 1942; the fresco illustrates the importance of agriculture and shipping to the economy of the Western Cape in the early half of the 20th century.
Cheeses production in Stanford. Recently galvanised pipes being finished in a Cape Town. The Cape Town City Bowl. The port at Cape Town. Agricultural workers picking grapes in a Western Cape vineyard.
Statistics
GDPZAR 918 billion
(US$ 56 billion) (2022)[1]
0.58 (2010)[2]
0.75[3]
Labour force
2,785,871 (2016)[3]
Unemployment19.7% (2017)[4]
Public finances
RevenuesR269.58 billion (2020) - to national ficus[5]
ExpensesR72.3 billion (2021)[6]


The Dutch controlled spice trade in the 18th century brought a lot of shipping to Cape Town, fueling the growth of the colony.

The economy of the Western Cape in South Africa is dominated by the city of Cape Town, which accounted for 72% of the Western Cape's economic activity in 2016.[7] The single largest contributor to the region's economy is the financial and business services sector, followed by manufacturing. Close to 30% of the gross regional product comes from foreign trade[8] with agricultural products and wine dominating exports. High-tech industries, international call centres, fashion design, advertising and TV production are niche industries rapidly gaining in importance.[9]

The Western Cape province had a total GDP for 2016 of R424.38 billion (equivalent to US$29.3 billion)[3] growing from R268.26bn in 2008. In 2016 the economy grew by 2.7% with an annual inflation rate of 6.3%.[3] The province accounts for 14% of South Africa's total GDP with Cape Town accounting for 9.9% of the country's total GDP in 2016.[3] The Western Cape has a GDP per capita of R97,664 in comparison to the South African average of R81,875 per capita in 2017.[10] At 19.7% the province has a substantially lower unemployment rate than the national average standing at 23.2% in 2009.[11] In 2018 the number of unemployed people declined by 38,000 with employment rates increasing by 3.9% since 2017.[12] Between 2013 and 2017 the province generated a disproportionately large number of jobs relative to the region's size to the rest of the country's economy; creating 23.6% of all new jobs in the country in this period.[13]

  1. ^ "Provincial gross domestic product:experimental estimates, 2013–2022" (PDF). www.statssa.gov.za.
  2. ^ "Regional Development Profile City of Cape Town" (PDF). Western Cape Government. 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e City of Cape Town (2016). "Economic Performance Indicators for Cape Town" (PDF). Cape Town: City of Cape Town. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  4. ^ Western Cape Government (September 2018). Provincial Economic Review and Outlook 2018 (PDF) (Report). p. 6. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  5. ^ "2020 Tax Statistics" (PDF). South African Revenue Service. December 2020. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-621-49022-0. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  6. ^ Western Cape Government Provincial Treasury (2021). "Budget: Overview of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure" (PDF). Western Cape Government. ISBN 978-0-621-49184-5.
  7. ^ Western Cape Government (September 2017). "Provincial Economic Review and Outlook 2017" (PDF). www.westerncape.gov.za. pp. 5–6. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Investing in the Western Cape". Brand South Africa. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  9. ^ Fast Facts: April–May 2007, Provincial Profile, Western Cape. South African Institute of Race Relations, p. 20.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference STATSSAgdp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WESTERN CAPE: OVERVIEW". Cape Gateway. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  12. ^ "'Western Cape has highest average salary of R369 401 per year' | Cape Argus". www.iol.co.za. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  13. ^ Western Cape Government. "Provincial Economic Review and Outlook 2018" (PDF). www.westerncape.gov.za. pp. 4–5. Retrieved 13 May 2019.