South African Economy Grew Steadily Over 2 Decades-英语听力

[00:00.100]This is the Economics Report from VOA Learning English. [00:05.980]A new report is praising South Africa [00:08.920]for its economic growth over the past 20 years. [00:12.790]The report comes from the banking company Goldman Sachs. [00:17.790]It decided to examine South Africa's economic progress [00:22.790]since the end of white minority rule in 1994. [00:27.900]Colin Coleman works for the company. [00:30.760]"South Africa in the last year has tended to have a motional, [00:34.270]somewhat negative reaction both domestically and internationally. [00:39.500]And my view is that we needed to kind of get some perspective [00:44.050]on the past 20 years as to what's been achieved [00:47.490]in order to get a better balance in the debate," said Colin Coleman. [00:50.660]The report notes changes to the South African economy [00:55.120]over the past 20 years. [00:57.340]"When you look back at what Nelson Mandela inherited [01:01.140]in May when he became president, it was really bitter pill, [01:06.510]because you had an indebted nation that had no money. [01:10.170]There was growing below-population growth [01:12.970]with huge unemployment, huge racial disparities, [01:15.330]a very volatile political social environment. [01:18.470]Effectively, that gave way to a golden period of growth, [01:21.530]low inflation, bringing the debt down and an extraordinary performance [01:26.470]until the global financial crisis," Coleman said. [01:29.270]The report says the amount of money collected in taxes [01:32.540]increased from $114 billion in 1994 to $814 billion. [01:41.620]South Africans are not always happy about the direction of the economy, [01:47.010]but business leaders and economists were pleased [01:50.780]to see a long-term look at some of the improvements. [01:54.740]Joanne Yawitch heads the National Business Initiative, [01:59.120]the organization works on efforts to help strengthening the economy. [02:04.220]"There's often a lot of doom and gloom talk about South Africa, [02:07.690]but what the report did point out [02:10.750]is some fairly of significant achievements over the last 20 years. [02:15.330]In particular, there has been an increase in productivity, [02:19.460]an increase in employment, [02:22.110]there has been a huge increase in the number of people in the middle class. [02:25.380]Quite a substantial improvement [02:29.680]in the quality of life of a great number of people," said Joanne Yawitch. [02:33.460]But the country still has problems. [02:36.520]The report notes South Africa's education system continues to struggle, [02:42.060]and the unemployment rate remains at about 24 percent. [02:47.040]It says 70 percent of those jobless people are under age 34. [02:53.960]There are also great racial inequality, especially in terms of earnings. [03:00.280]The reports says 85 percent of blacks are poor, [03:04.610]while 87 percent of whites are middle to upper class. [03:09.500]There have been criticisms of the report. [03:12.430]Some people say it depends heavily on general information, [03:16.750]not cultural evidence. [03:19.040]When Yawitch agrees with some of the criticisms, [03:22.360]but she says the report shows the country has come a long way. [03:27.210]"I think the reality certainly for me [03:30.070]- I mean I grew up under apartheid and have spent 20 years in this democracy [03:35.130]- is that life in South Africa is a lot better for most people than it ever was. [03:38.440]But there are very, very big things that still have to happen. [03:43.960]And I think that's what the report draws our attention to, [03:46.800]is that it's a long journey and that we've made progress [03:51.900]and must carry on," Yawitch said. " [03:53.270]And that's the Economics Report.