SA parents urged to tighten belts
Ahead of the reopening of schools for the 2016 academic year, parents have been cautioned to tighten their belts.
According to Efficient Group economist Francios Stofberg, households will feel the pinch of rising costs with a possible interest rate hike and higher inflation that will add to the financial pressures.
Stofberg said the Reserve Bank might increase the interest rate quite substantially this year to try and curtail the depressed state of the rand.
Coupled with higher inflation, it will have an impact on household spending. Added to this... higher consumer prices and of course... schoolfees.
"Household are going to be in a difficult position, particularly families that are now sending their kids to school that have to buy clothes, that have to buy pencils and all the notebook thet need to have," he said.
Stofberg said money spent on debt will result in less disposable income.
This is something Pretoria mother Carien Swart could identify with was her daughter Lienke who starts Grade 1 on Wednesday.
"It's got an impact. I guess we need to budget better and to actually get out our saving in order to afford school," she said.
(File photo: Gallo Images)