Stable and developed South Africa is an anomaly in Africa, economically resembling its Australian neighbors across the ocean more than its African neighbors across the savanna. It is an emerging market with abundant natural resources, a modern infrastructure and the 17th largest stock exchange in the world. Its inflation rate is among the best in Africa, at 6.5 percent last year. The currency in South Africa is the rand (ZAR). One US dollar will typically buy seven or eight South African rands.

South Africa has a definite upper and lower class. The richest 10 percent of the population controls 45 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 10 percent controls only one percent. Part of this is because remnants of apartheid still prevent some native African groups from becoming economically independent. Also, thousands of refugees from the Congo, Somalia, and more recently, Zimbabwe have fled to South Africa, hampering the country's efforts to lower its unemployment rate and take care of its own impoverished citizens. According to the CIA, South Africa's national unemployment rate is approximately 24 percent and 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.