FORECASTING INVESTMENT NEEDS IN SOUTH AFRICA'S ELECTRICITY AND TELECOM SECTORS

The paper uses 52‐country panel‐data for the period 1980‐2002 to estimate demand for electricity and telecom services and, based on these estimates, project investment needs in South Africa through 2010 for two growth scenarios. Projections of average annual investment needs in electricity and telecom for the current growth scenario (3.6% per annum) are of the order of 0.2% and 0.75% of GDP, respectively. An alternative, accelerated growth scenario (6% per annum) implies an approximate doubling of investment needs in these sectors.