The South African economy recorded a minor contraction in the third quarter of this year as output fell in the agriculture, mining and construction industries, statistics agency data showed on Tuesday.
The 0.2% contraction in quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted terms ZAGDPN=ECI was slightly larger than the 0.1% predicted by analysts polled by Reuters and followed two consecutive quarters of growth.
The latest figures mean Africa’s most industrialised economy grew just 0.3% in the first nine months of the year.
Joe de Beer, head of economic statistics at Statistics South Africa, said that almost all sectors of the economy were neither growing nor declining very much.
“The economy has moved sideways, … the numbers are just oscillating around zero,” he said at a briefing in the capital Pretoria.
In unadjusted year-on-year terms Q3 GDP contracted 0.7% ZAGDPY=ECI, also worse than analysts’ prediction for a fall of 0.2%.
Previously growth in expenditure was driven by private investment in renewable energy as businesses look to compensate for the state utility Eskom implementing the worst power cuts on record. However this has slowed.
Source: CNBC
