South Africa's middle class is shrinking amid difficult economic times

- The economy continues to shrink and South Africans have been attempting to plug the hole with credit

- With the cost of living rising, many have been forced to live less extravagant lifestyles

- Debt Rescue predicts that the new year won't bring much in the way of financial relief

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South Africans are currently battling to shoulder an increase in the price of living, with many turning to debt to avoid drowning.

eNCA reports that Debt Rescue CEO Neil Roets predicts the new year will continue to see bleak economic times:

"We've seen a lot of petrol price increases, interest rates during the past couple of years and the reality is all these costs filter down to the price of goods and services. People just cannot afford to pay all those increases and indirect effects thereof because of the fact that their salaries are not growing in line with all the price increases that we're seeing."

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Roets says that with tax hikes and inflation rates soaring, the nation's middle class is getting poorer:

"All these price increases and the debt that's making life so difficult are pushing people back into poverty from the middle class and that's very unfortunate. They're paying a lot of taxes but they're not getting a lot of tax breaks."

Briefly.co.za gathered that, while the middle class earns more than lower-income citizens, the vast number of tariff increases has hit this demographic hard:

"They're earning more than the lower-income people but not enough to cover all these price increases, so they're in a very difficult situation."

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Source: Briefly News