caused an
estimated 150 deaths and resulted in destruction of property in
coastal areas.

South Africa
South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with
an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial,
legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock
exchange that is 17th largest in the world; and modern
infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to
major urban centers throughout the region. Growth has been robust
since 2004, as South Africa has reaped the benefits of macroeconomic
stability and a global commodities boom. However, unemployment
remains high and outdated infrastructure has constrained growth. At
the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity
crisis because state power supplier Eskom suffered supply problems
with aged plants, necessitating "load-shedding" cuts to residents
and businesses in the major cities. Daunting economic problems
remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty, lack of economic
empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public
transportation. South African economic policy is fiscally
conservative but pragmatic, focusing on controlling inflation,
maintaining a budget surplus, and using state-owned enterprises to
deliver basic services to low-income areas as a means to increase
job growth and household income.

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Some fishing takes
place in adjacent waters. There is a potential source of income from
harvesting finfish and krill. The islands receive income from
postage stamps produced in the UK, sale of fishing licenses, and
harbor and landing fees from tourist vessels. Tourism from
specialized cruise ships is increasing rapidly.

Southern Ocean
Fisheries in 2005-06 landed 128,081 metric tons, of
which 83% (106,591 tons) was krill (Euphausia superba) and 9.7%
(12,364 tons) Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides),
compared to 147,506 tons in 2004-05 of which 86% (127,035 tons) was
krill and 8% (11,821 tons) Patagonian toothfish (estimated fishing
from the area covered by the Convention of the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which extends slightly
beyond the Southern Ocean area). International agreements were
adopted in late 1999 to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated
fishing, which in the 2000-01 season landed, by one estimate, 8