Economics
South Africa Has Second Recession in Eight Years
- Gross domestic product contracted 0.7% in first quarter
- Median of 19 economists’ estimates was for 1% expansion
South African Retail And Rand As Economy Teeters On Edge Of Credit-Ratings Downgrade
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
South Africa’s economy fell into a recession for the first time since 2009 after it contracted for a second straight quarter in the first three months of the year as all bar two industries shrank.
Gross domestic product receded an annualized 0.7 percent in the first quarter from a contraction of 0.3 percent in the previous three months, Statistics South Africa said in a report released on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median of 19 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for 1 percent expansion. There was only one forecast for a contraction.