South Africa Exits Recession in Second Quarter as GDP Rises 2.5%
- Expansion ends country’s second recession in eight years
- Agricultural output surged 34 percent from previous quarter
An employee holds a handful of corn at the Kaap Agri grain silo Klipheuwel, near Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday, Feb. 11, 2011. Corn advanced in South Africa, the continentÕs largest producer of the grain, as prices rose in the U.S., which competes for African export markets.
. Photographer: Nadine Hutton/BloombergSouth Africa’s economy exited its second recession in almost a decade in the three months ended June 30 after agricultural output surged.
Gross domestic product increased an annualized 2.5 percent in the second quarter compared with a revised decline of 0.6 percent in the previous three months, the statistics office said in a report released on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for growth of 2.3 percent. The economy expanded 1.1 percent from a year earlier.