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Adam Tooze: The Mixed Record of South Africa’s Economy Since Apartheid

Its GDP has surged, but deep inequalities persist.

By , a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
Housing structures in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, South Africa, on April 21, 2022.
Housing structures in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, South Africa, on April 21, 2022.
Housing structures in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, South Africa, on April 21, 2022. ALESSANDRO IOVINO/AFP via Getty Images

South Africa is today the world’s 36th-largest economy, measured by GDP. Yet it still suffers extraordinary inequality, a legacy of its history of apartheid. That makes it one of the world’s great economic success stories of the last 30 years—but also a very unusual one.

Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @CameronAbadi

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