In 2025, GDI grew above the rate of average annual inflation (2.7%) and the growth in the number of households (1.3% according to the LFS), which allowed for a recovery in purchasing power. In this context, real household income has grown by 4.5% since before the pandemic, highlighting that households have continued to gain purchasing power in real terms.

The strong financial position of households is reflected not only in the high savings rate but also in their financial accounts. In this regard, households’ financial wealth continued to increase in 2025: their financial assets amounted to 3.4 trillion euros at the end of the year, versus 3.1 trillion at the end of 2024. This increase of 292 billion euros is broken down into a net acquisition of financial assets amounting to 95 billion, higher than the 21.5-billion average in the period 2015-2019, when interest rates were very low, and a revaluation effect of 194 billion. When breaking down the net acquisition of assets, we note that households invested 42 billion euros in equities and investment funds, just under 9.6 billion less than in deposits, while they disposed of debt securities worth 6 billion following the fall in interest rates.

On the other hand, households continued to deleverage in 2025, and by the end of the year their financial liabilities stood at 46.9% of GDP, compared to 47.8% in 2024, the lowest level since the end of 1998. This decline reflects the fact that, in 2025, households took advantage of the interest rate drop to prudently incur debt: net new borrowing amounted to 35 billion euros, representing an increase of 3.8%, which is lower than the nominal GDP growth of 5.8% and the GDI growth of 5.3%.

As a result of the increase in financial assets and the decrease in liabilities as a percentage of GDP, the net financial wealth of households recorded a notable increase of 7.3 points compared to 2024, reaching 156.8% of GDP.

Back in 2018 Cape Town, South Africa came dangerously close to running out of water. A severe, multi-year drought, combined with population growth and rising demand, pushed the city toward what officials called “Day Zero” – the moment when municipal water supplies would fall so low that household taps would be shut off and residents would be forced to collect daily water rations from designated distribution sites.

The city responded with extraordinary urgency. Emergency water stations were prepared. Public campaigns urged residents to reduce water consumption to just 13 gallons per day (the amount used in a single 6-minute shower). Monitoring systems tracked household water use. The filling of swimming pools and the washing of cars were banned.

These efforts helped Cape Town narrowly avoid a catastrophe. But the warning was unmistakable.

Water security is not only an environmental issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s a public health issue. It’s a food security issue. And for communities around the world, it is becoming a basic test of climate resilience.

In Cape Town, the crisis was driven by a combination of pressures. The city depends heavily on reservoirs supplied by six major dams. By 2018 these reservoirs had fallen below 20% capacity after years of drought. Aging infrastructure added strain. So did the spread of invasive plants, which consumed enormous amounts of water before it could reach the municipal system.

This last point matters. When we think about water infrastructure, we usually think about pipes, reservoirs, dams, pumps, and treatment plants. Those systems are essential. But they are only part of the story. The landscapes that capture, filter, store, and release water are vital infrastructure, too.

The good news is that we know how to better prevent and prepare for these risks moving forward. The answer? Investing in common-sense, nature-based solutions that restore balance to the region’s ecosystem. These are not abstract environmental ideals. They are practical investments with measurable benefits. The hard part has always been paying for them.

Nature-based solutions remain dramatically underfunded. This is a central challenge to global conservation efforts today. Indeed, it’s not that we lack solutions. We lack financial systems capable of delivering those solutions at the speed and scale required.

But that is beginning to change.

A New Model for Financing Nature

The Cape Water Performance-Based Bond, announced last month, is more than just a creative financing tool. It is a five-year, outcomes‑linked transaction designed to mobilize capital markets at scale in support of nature‑based solutions, bringing together public institutions, philanthropic support, conservation expertise, and private capital to deliver measurable environmental results.

The bond, listed on the Johannesburg Stock exchange valued at R2.5 billion (USD $150 million) brought together FirstRand Bank as issuer, Rand Merchant Bank as arranger and structurer, and a coalition of local and international investors and philanthropic funders. As part of the structuring, The Nature Conservancy (TNCs) South Africa Program receives R150 million (USD $8.8 million) for implementation. And its most important feature is also its most innovative: investor returns are linked directly to independently verified ecological outcomes.

That is a major step forward.

For years, sustainable finance has often relied on “use-of-proceeds” models. Capital is raised and directed toward projects expected to produce environmental benefits. Yes, those models have value. But the Cape Water bond goes further. Investors are not simply financing a project that promises environmental benefits. Their returns are tied to whether those benefits are actually delivered. In this case, the outcome is clear: restoring critical water source areas in South Africa’s Western Cape by removing invasive alien plants that reduce water yield, damage biodiversity, and increase wildfire risk.

Over the next few years, the restoration work supported through the Greater Cape Town Water Fund will focus on removal of invasive species such as Pine, Eucalyptus, and Australian acacias, which consume far more water than the Cape’s native vegetation. At the height of concern, invasive plants were estimated to consume nearly 150 million liters of water per day in the Greater Cape Town region alone. Put more plainly, that was approximately one-fifth of the entire city’s water usage during the crisis.

The work builds on efforts already underway via the Greater Cape Town Water Fund, which was formed by TNC and partners in response to Cape Town’s prolonged water crisis. Already these efforts have cleared tens of thousands of hectares of invasive, water hogging plants. The fund prioritizes science-driven, nature-based solutions that restore the watersheds feeding the city’s water supply. Here again, the outcomes are not assumed. They are measured. And they are verified. That kind of accountability matters. It builds trust. It strengthens rigor. And by systematically evaluating returns, it helps move conservation finance closer to mainstream capital markets.

The Warning of “Day Zero”

The Western Cape is a powerful place to prove this model.

Cape Town’s experience during the 2017-2018 drought showed the world what water insecurity looks like in real time. It also changed how many people think about infrastructure.

In the Western Cape, invasive alien plants have disrupted the natural function of key catchments. They consume large amounts of water, crowd out native vegetation, and weaken the ecological integrity of the region’s water source areas. Removing them is not just landscape restoration. It is water system restoration.

Analysis from the Greater Cape Town Water Fund indicates that clearing invasive plants across priority sub-watersheds could help return roughly 55 billion liters of water each year to the Western Cape Water Supply System – one-third of Cape Town’s annual municipal water needs.

That’s not a marginal environmental benefit. It represents one of the most cost‑effective nature‑based strategies available to strengthen long‑term water security, while also delivering biodiversity, wildfire‑risk, and economic benefits.

A Blueprint for Global Conservation Finance

The Cape Water bond helps make that case in a language markets understand.

Commercial finance provides scale. Philanthropic and outcomes-based support help absorb risk. Conservation organizations like TNC apply scientific and technical expertise to implement on-ground restoration, while independent verification ensures outcomes and integrity. Public-interest institutions keep the structure aligned with long-term community and ecosystem benefit.

Martin Potgieter of Rand Merchant Bank explained, “This is a R2.5 billion market signal that natural capital has entered mainstream finance — combining financial innovation with scientific rigor.”

That’s using different types of capital to unlock outcomes that no single funding source could achieve alone. It’s exactly what blended finance is supposed to do. And the model has global relevance.

Around the world, communities are searching for ways to close the gap between conservation need and available funding. Sovereign nature bonds and debt conversions helped unlock capital for ocean conservation in places like the Seychelles, Belize, Barbados, and Gabon. The Cape Water bond builds on that same spirit of innovation but applies it to watershed restoration through a performance-based capital markets instrument.

Nature-based solutions work. And the Cape Water Performance-Based Bond shows what is possible. Conservation can be tied to performance. Public institutions and private capital can work together. And ecological restoration, when structured well, can attract the kind of financial support needed to move from isolated pilot projects to real scale.

Nature has always been one of our most valuable assets. It is time our financial systems treated it that way.

___________________________________________

Author’s Note:

As a physician, I have spent much of my career studying human health. Increasingly, I have come to believe that understanding, and protecting, the health of the planet is inseparable from protecting our own.

Brokerage firms, including major players such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, are increasingly courting teenagers, rolling out investment accounts, incentives, and trading platforms in a push to capture the next generation of investors early.

The most recent entrant into the teen market is Charles Schwab, which launched a Schwab Teen Investor account in March for those between 13 to 17 years old. The account is structured as a joint brokerage account with a parent or legal guardian, and comes with no minimum deposit, no commissions on listed equity trades, and no account fees.

The new accounts come as Gen Z has shown an exploding interest in Wall Street, driven by social media influencers and finance-focused apps. A recent survey shows that 70% of teens aged 13-17 expressed a high interest in investing. Youth-focused trading platforms, such as Greenlight, also have seen major growth. Teens and kids invested $70 million in 2025, a 65% increase in trading year over year, according to Greenlight.

At Babson College, Professor of Practice Patrick Gregory has noticed the increased interest firsthand.

Gregory will be teaching Inside Wall Street: How Investors Find Winning Stocks, beginning in June. The popular one-week course for rising high school juniors and seniors—part of The Arthur M. Blank School Summer Program for High School Students—introduces students to the analytical tools and decision-making frameworks used by professional investors.

“Students will learn more than just theory,” said Gregory, also the managing director of the Stephen D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance. “They’ll get an interactive introduction into the world of investing that will keep them engaged.”

Hands-on Approach to Investing

Gregory said teens should move beyond the “meme stock” culture and speculative trading content that dominates much of social media finance discourse. Instead, students will learn how institutional investors evaluate companies, analyze financial statements, and build disciplined investment theses.

Inside Babson’s Cutler Center, students use professional-grade platforms including Bloomberg and FactSet to research public companies and test investment ideas. Working in teams, they will analyze real businesses and present stock pitches modeled after those used by hedge funds and mutual funds.

“This isn’t a ‘sit and listen’ class,” Gregory said. “Students learn how to conduct primary research and leverage resources like Bloomberg to arrive at data-driven investment decisions.”

The program also gives students direct access to investment professionals who will discuss how Wall Street actually operates, an experience Gregory said helps demystify the industry while emphasizing rigor over hype.

What students should not expect are “get-rich-quick schemes,” he added. “We focus on rigorous, institutional-grade fundamental investing rather than speculative trading tips.”

Four Investing Tips for Teens

Gregory also is the faculty director of the Babson College Fund, in which Babson students manage $8 million of the College’s endowment. He offered four suggestions for teens interested in investing, or a career in finance:

1. Read a few transcripts of company earnings calls, or study the investor relations section of a well-known brand, such as Apple or Nike, to see how those companies talk to their investors.
2. Listen to “We Study Billionaires,” a podcast that explores the frameworks used by legendary investors such as Warren Buffett and Howard Marks.
3. Start reading The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg daily and pick two or three companies in industries you find interesting to follow.
4. Read “How to Read Financial Statements,” a free, online primer on income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow.

Gregory’s class, which offers additional insights for teens interested in the stock market, is just one of Babson’s immersive pre-college experiences available this summer.

Summer at Babson, the summer program at the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership, offers online and in-person programs for high school students interested in entrepreneurship, business, leadership, and innovation. Designed around Babson’s signature Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology, these programs give students hands-on experience, while exposing them to college-level coursework and professional environments.

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