Young Economist winners announced

 The winners of the annual Young Economist of the Year competition was announced at the awards ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. The first prize of R7000 went to team Vraag-en-aanbod of Judy le Roux and André Strydom. It is the first time in the five year history of the competition that a woman was on the winning team. The runners-up, team Eko Cruisers of Jacques Kritzinger, Johan Diener and JL du Toit shared the prize money of R4500. Team HJW Inc. came in third.

Students were asked to predict certain economic variables. According to Melt van Schoor, coordinator of the competition, the volatile global financial system made the task very difficult for students this year. "There were a number of a variables where the average prediction and the real variable was quite some distance apart. However, this was also the case for the private sector economists' forecasts."

The competition is held annually and sponsored by the Department of Economics and Die Burger.

The top 20 teams were:

1. Vraag en Aanbod
2. Eko Cruisers
3. HJW Inc.
4. Team AWESOME
5. TAX Evasion
6. Harmonie's Economists
7. Rockachicka
8. Functional-Apathy.com
9. The Unstoppables
10. unpredictable
11. pickwick
12. Victorious Secret
13. CNA
14. skêr
15. Ekonsisteem
16. Vervlaks, Jan Taks!
17. Ceteris Paribus
18. Warren's Buffet
19. A kwadraat
20. CPI - Clairvoyant People Incorporated

Here are more pictures from this event: