Driver Overview
This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).
Rank
Score /100
Best practice
Metric Overview
Strengths
Cost to start a business
According to the World Bank, South Africa has one of the lowest costs of starting a business out of all InfraCompass 2020 countries at 0.2% of income per capita, easing the entry of new firms.
Financial stability
South Africa has the largest financial market in Africa. A stable financial system improves the supply of capital by facilitating the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure assets and investors. The COVID-19 pandemic may impact South Africa’s financial stability.
Registering property
According to the World Bank, it takes 23 days to register a property in South Africa, which is slightly higher than the average of 21.7 days for Upper Middle Income Countries. As infrastructure projects often involve some transfer of property rights, an efficient process reduces project cost and risk.
Top Performing Metrics
Top Performing Metrics
This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100.
Permits:
Cost to start a business
Financial markets:
Financial stability
Permits:
Registering property
Opportunities to Grow
Long term GDP growth trend
South Africa’s long-term GDP growth trend is 1.5%, which is lower than the Upper Middle Income Countries average of 3.1%. Combined with the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this low growth trend may hamper South Africa’s ability to borrow and build more infrastructure.
Value of closed PPP infrastructure deals
The value of closed PPP infrastructure deals is the second lowest out of the Upper Middle Income Countries, at only 0.03% of GDP. This is, significantly lower than the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 0.30%. A low value may reflect a preference for traditional delivery models.
Value of close infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship
South Africa has a low value of closed infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship, at only 0.03%. A low value may reflect a limited scale of infrastructure investment opportunities available for foreign investors and may increase financing costs as a result of lower levels of competition.
Metrics to Improve
Metrics to Improve
This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.
For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.
Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend
Activity:
Value of closed PPP infrastructure deals
Detailed Data
This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017.
Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset.
Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.
28.2%
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.
20.7%
World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.
18.1%
Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.
15.1%
Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).
12.8%
Political stability and absence of violence score
Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.
5%
Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.
South Africa
Upper-middle Income Countries Average
Description
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.
Weighting (% of Driver)
28.2%
Source Link
Description
World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.
Weighting (% of Driver)
20.7%
Description
Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.
Weighting (% of Driver)
18.1%
Source Link
Description
Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).
Weighting (% of Driver)
15.1%
Source Link
Description
Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.
Weighting (% of Driver)
12.8%
Description
Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.
Weighting (% of Driver)
5%
Source Link
Country Overview Data
6,965 USD
Population60.1 million persons
68.1 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment3.1% of GDP
Infrastructure gap1.3% of GDP
0.7%
GDP per capita growth rate-4.0%
Gini coefficient63.0 (0-100 worst)
Gross Government Debt60.0% of GDP
Inflation rate4.4%
Summary credit rating50.0 (0-100 best)
Unemployment rate27.3%
Urbanisation ratio66.0% of total population
Road connectivity96.2 (0-100 best)
4.5 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of train services3.0 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of air transport services5.5 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of seaport services4.5 (1-7 best)
Electricity access84.2% of population
Electricity supply quality8.7% of output lost
Exposure to unsafe drinking water27.8% of population
Reliability of water supply4.4 (1-7 best)
Mobile-broadband subscriptions76.0 per 100 population
Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions2.4 per 100 population