JOHANNESBURG - A report from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, the Global Metro Monitor has shown that Pretoria is the fastest growing South African metro economy.
The findings of the report also showed that 300 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world grew faster than the global economy overall, making up two-thirds of global GDP growth and more than a third of global employment growth between 2014 and 2016.
Pretoria had the highest regional growth in employment, 7,6%, and the metro had a strong GDP per capita growth. The metro has showed great improvement in its ranking which was previously 217 and now it is 35.
Johannesburg which was once the fastest growing South African metro. Now the metro along with Cape Town had a negative GPD per capital and small employment growth.
The concentration of economic growth and prosperity in big metro areas now characterises the modern global economy, creating both opportunities and challenges in time when national political, economic and societal trends are more and more affected by subnational dynamics.
The 2018 Global Metro Monitor examines metro areas based on an index that is a combination of employment and GDP per capita. Metro areas that have emerging economies continue to disproportionately drive growth.
Emerging metro economies account for 80% of the 60 best performing metro economies on the index.
The report also shows that between 2014 and 2016:
1. Metro areas in China and emerging Asia-Pacific had the fastest GDP per capita growth in the world. Metro areas in the Middle East and Africa showed the fastest employment growth.
2. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, big metros grew employment while of the rest of the region stood still.
3. Metros in Latin America had the slowest GDP per capita and employment growth.
4. Regions like North America and Western Europe had average growth during the period, but a solid showing n the technology sector pushed two Silicon Valley areas, San Jose and San Francisco into the top four of the index.