The Competition Commission of South Africa will on Tuesday unveil and handover its first ever Economy Concentration Tracker report to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel.

Themed: Measuring Concentration and Participation in the South African Economy: Levels and Trends, the report details the levels of concentration and participation in 178 markets and how these have been evolving over the past 5-10 years.

The study makes use of data collected by over 80 industry organisations, regulators and government departments as well as data from SARS, Stats SA and the Commission itself.

The study recently served before Cabinet makes recommendations as to how persistent concentration and the lack of participation may be addressed through more coordinated competition policy and law enforcement.

The economic sectors highlighted in the report include but are not limited to agriculture, retail, forestry, health care services, financial services sector, media, energy, property, gambling, construction, automotive and airline industry.

The report prefaces the origins of concentration in South Africa’s economy as a direct result of concentrated “market structure from the Apartheid era” which left the country with an economy characterised by excessive levels of concentration of ownership and control, as well as a lack of participation by all South Africans.

Source: South African Government News Agency