Rand Merchant Bank Economist

Ettienne, Chief Economist at RMB, considers himself a macroeconomist — someone who needs to know some things about a lot of things. Economics is essentially a social science with two sub-fields — microeconomics and macroeconomics. In short, microeconomics deals with detail, the nitty-gritty so to speak.

This can include price theory, what determines the cost of a product, determining the wage of particular workers, to name a few. Macroeconomics on the other hand is the big picture. Topics such as the global economy, international trade, inflation, and public finance.

Everything mentioned above will have an influence on the environment in which RMB operates, and also how their clients operate. That’s where data comes in. Without it, there’s nothing to analyze. If there’s nothing to analyze, it’s impossible to draw conclusions.

Without a conclusion, one won’t be able to think about the implications of an event. The real value of data comes to the fore when RMB’s clients and colleagues incorporate the data into their budget and planning processes and devise a strategy from the information supplied.

Once data is packaged, one needs to learn how to communicate it. There’s an art to this, it’s a storytelling process. What you don’t want is to have an interesting theory that gets lost in terms of how you convey it.

The most important skill of a great economist is taking complex, technical data, analyzing it, and packaging the conclusions in such a way that is relatable, easy to consume, and relevant to the specific audience.