National survey of research and experimental development: main analysis report 2012/13

Having increased GERD in both 2011/12 and 2012/13, South Africa seems to have followed the general pattern of recovering global R&D expenditure. International comparisons, however, indicate that South Africa's R&D intensity for 2012/13 was below the world average of 1.77%, the European Union average of 1.97% and the OECD average of 2.40%. Among the BRICS countries, Brazil, China and the Russian Federation had an R&D share of GDP above 1.0%, while this figure was below 1% for South Africa and India (2011 data). Different economic contexts must be taken into account when interpreting international comparisons.