Economy grows by 0.5% in third quarter
Statistics South Africa announced on Tuesday that the country's economy grew by 0.5% between July and September 2025 compared to the previous quarter.
StatsSA's Chief Director for National Accounts, Dr Bokang Vumbukani-Lepolesa, stated that on the production side of the economy, nine out of ten industries grew during this period.
She added that mining and quarrying, agriculture, forestry and fishing, and trade, catering and accommodation, recorded the highest growth rates.
"Trade increased by 1% with positive gains in wholesale, retail, motor trade, accommodation and food and beverages," said Vumbukani-Lepolesa.
"Mining output increased by 2.3% driven predominantly by platinum group metals with support from manganese ore, coal, chromium ore and copper. Electricity, gas and water were the only industries that disappointed in the third quarter, shrinking by 2.5%. This was due to lower electricity production and consumption."
Dr Elna Moolman, Standard Bank Group Head of South Africa Macroeconomic Research, said the 0.5% economic growth was in line with expectations.
"The expansion was quite broad-based, with all sectors except electricity expanding in the third quarter," said Moolman.
"If we look at it from the expenditure side, then household spending continued growing in line with our expectations, with growth that was slightly softer than in the second quarter."
"Fixed investment encouragingly recovered in the third quarter, though this was driven almost entirely by the public sector. Private sector fixed investment increased by a negligible 0.1% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. At least there is still evidence of ongoing traction with the government's growth-supportive fixed investment drive."
Moolman said the economy is performing in line with their expectations during a challenging year, from where they expect to see an improvement in growth over the medium term.
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