South Africa’s gross domestic product decreased by 0.7% per cent in the second quarter of 2022.
Statistics South Africa on Tuesday released the latest GDP figures, highlighting that the country’s economy in the second quarter of 2022 was smaller than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
[Thread] The South African #economy contracted by 0,7% in Q2: 2022. The size of the economy in Q2:2022 was smaller than it was before the pandemic.#StatsSA #GDP pic.twitter.com/jfa0pbrsgG
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) September 6, 2022
At an annualized 4.57 trillion rand ($266.2 billion) in the three months through June, GDP is now about 21 billion rands lower than the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic struck.
At least seven sectors shrunk in the second quarter of this year, with significant negative contributors to growth recorded in manufacturing, agriculture, trade and mining.
The quarterly decline comes after heavy rains in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, the second-biggest contributor to South Africa’s GDP, triggered floods and landslides that washed away roads, bridges and houses, halted operations at vehicle-manufacturing plants and wrecked infrastructure at sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest container port. Rolling blackouts — which were imposed on more than half of the days in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations — also contributed to the drop.
While household expenditure increased by 0.6%, people spent less money on items such as alcohol, tobacco and clothing.
