Foreign Direct Investment and Electricity Consumption on Economic Growth: Evidence from South Africa

This paper specifies a model in which we investigate the interrelationship of economic growth, electricity consumption and foreign direct investment. We find that foreign direct investment and electricity consumption are only cointegrated when GDP is the dependent variable. With respect to causality, the null hypothesis that electricity consumption (kWh) and foreign direct investment (FDI) do not ‘Granger cause’ GDP is rejected. Similarly, the null hypothesis that GDP and electricity consumption do not ‘Granger cause’ FDI is rejected at the same 5% level of significance. We find that electricity consumption and foreign direct investment Granger cause economic growth.