SOUTH Africans are waking up to the need for greater domestic savings as shown by the continued increase in voluntary top-ups on retirement annuities.
This is the good news from Liberty Group, which administers more than 12 000 retirement schemes, collectively valued at R40-billion.
It comes hardly a month after the government expressed concern that chronically low savings rates will hobble the nation’s growth plans, and make SA ever more reliant on foreign inflows to cover its balance of payments deficit.
Kieran Godden, divisional director of specialised corporate consultancy at Liberty, said: “The top-up trend has been noted at companies of all sizes and among individuals making use of portable pension schemes and new-generation flexible retirement annuities.”
He ascribed these developments to growing uncertainty about the future following a spate of interest rate hikes and the inflation rate surging past the 6% official ceiling. — Liberty Group