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June ATM cash withdrawals in S Africa hit new high

July 12, 2013

South Africa's average cash withdrawal values in June reached a new high for the year at R475.98 ($47.46), an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous month, according to statistics from the Spark Cash Index. The index measures the average value of cash withdrawals at 2,000 ATMs across the country.

The increase aligns with typical consumer spending for the period, said Ryan Tzamtzis, operations manager for Spark ATM Systems.

"The high cash withdraw value is as a result of the 16 June Youth Day public holiday long weekend, coupled with the start of the mid-year school holidays. Consumers tend to spend more on entertainment and travelling on long weekends, public and school holidays," he said.

However, Ronel Oberholzer, principal economist for Sub-Saharan economics at IHS Global Insight, said that the increase does not mean that consumers have more disposable income.

"According to the latest BankservAfrica Disposable Salary Index, household disposable income is still under pressure and real disposable salaries declined on a year-ago basis," he said. "The higher recorded averages for June are likely to reflect that consumers are being more conscious about how and where they spend their money, instead of spending on credit."

The National Credit Regulator has reported that unsecured credit is also starting to come down — recording an 11.2 percent decrease in the first quarter of 2013. Tzamtzis said that the June increase across all provices indicates that consumers are using more cash and less credit.

Read more about trends and statistics.