announced that the country slipped into recession in the final three
months of 2019.
South Africa’s economy shrank by 1.4% in the fourth quarter,
following a revised 0.8% contraction in the third quarter. This
resulted in the third recession to hit the country since the end of
apartheid in 1994.
For the whole of 2019, the South African economy grew by only 0.2%
(in real terms). In 2018, it saw growth of only 0.8%. The fourth-quarter
decline is larger than economists had predicted, as the economy battles
the fallout of load shedding.
StatsSA said weak agriculture output and transport were the main
drags on growth, followed by construction, mining and manufacturing
which outweighed positive contributions from finance and government
spending.
Joe de Beer, Stats SA’s deputy director-general for economic statistics told reporters;
“The economy is in recession again. That is two consecutive quarters
of contraction, after being in recession in the first two quarters of
2018.”
South Africa has struggled to emerge from an economic slump in the
two years since Cyril Ramaphosa became president, promising sweeping
reforms.
The weak growth is likely to add more woes to President Cyril
Ramaphosa’s government, as the economy under his leadership continues to
suffer amid internal and external pressures.