GDP growth slows to 0.2% in Q3
South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a meagre 0.2% in the third quarter of 2016, Statistics South Africa announced on Tuesday.
The growth recorded was significantly lower than the previous quarter’s 3.3% and 0.1 percentage point lower than the 0.3% recorded in the third quarter of 2015.
“The main contributors to growth were the mining and quarrying sector, finance, real estate and business services and general government services,” Statistics SA deputy director general Joe de Beer said at a media briefing at Parliament.
The growth in the mining and quarrying sector, which expanded by 5.1%, was attributed to higher production in the mining of particularly iron ore.
Four industries – agriculture, forestry and fishing; manufacturing; electricity, gas and water; and trade, catering and accommodation - contracted. The agricultural, forestry and fisheries sector has been in decline for seven consecutive quarters.
“The contraction in the agricultural sector specifically could be attributed to the drought,” De Beer said, “but indications are that the drought experienced in 2016 is less severe than in 2015.”
Expenditure on GDP grew by 0.5%. The increase was by and large as a result of expenditure in health services, which increased by 10%.
Government final consumption expenditure increased by 2.1%, with household consumption expanding by 2.6%.
Net exports in the third quarter contributed negatively to total expenditure on GDP, falling by 26.4%, mainly because of lower exports of precious metals and transport equipment.
Imports also decreased by 4.9%, mainly because of subdued imports of machinery and electrical equipment.
The revised GDP growth figure Statistics SA recorded year-on-year for the third quarter was 0.7%.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation