South Africa’s economy is expected to shrink deeper into troubled waters after gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell below pre-pandemic levels in the final quarter of 2022 on the back of intensified load shedding.
Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday revealed that GDP shrank by 1.3% in the fourth quarter after rallying to an upwardly revised 1.8% rise in the third quarter.
This was the sharpest contraction since the third quarter of 2021, following the big surge in rotational power outages towards the end of 2022.
StatsSA said seven out of 10 industries recorded declines during the quarter, with finance and trade the biggest drags on growth.
Agriculture recorded the largest contraction of 3.3% in the quarter, pulled lower mainly by weaker production figures for field crops and horticulture products.
The trade, catering and accommodation industry was the second largest negative contributor to growth, mainly due to a decline in wholesale trade.
“In terms of our industries in primary, tertiary and of course secondary, we can see that all of them went on a slump. As of the fourth quarter our economy contracted by 1.3% and year-on-year 0.9%,” Maluleke said.
Source : iol.co.za
