Young Economist 2013 competition - winners announced

The winners of the Die Burger and Department of Economics 2013 Young Economist of the Year competition were announced at a function on Monday evening. First year students taking part in the competition, in teams of two students each, had to forecast economic indicators such as inflation, GDP growth and exchange rates using an electronic platform developed for the purpose. For the first time this year, the competition was opened up to students from the University of Cape Town, resulting in additional competition and an aspect of friendly rivalry between the instititutions.

As it turned out, the team that submitted the most accurate forecasts was from Stellenbosch, while the runners-up were from Cape Town (details here). The winners, William Melville (left in the picture) and Dewald Müller (right), walked away with a prize of R10 000 to share between them. Asked about their experience in the competition, they indicated that it took time and effort to make accurate forecasts. "We tried to read different financial and normal newspapers daily to get us up to date with current affairs and have a feeling for the state of the world economy. As the competition progressed we learnt that we had to take more and more factors into consideration."

"The most challenging was definitely the currency predictions due to the volatile state of the currency and the uncertainty in the world markets at the moment. At the end not just the monetary reward but also the knowledge gained makes the competition definitely worthwhile."

 The top ten teams are listed below: