Economy grows faster than expected in third quarter
Updated | By Sibahle Motha
South Africa’s economy has managed to dodge a technical recession after it grew by 1.6% in the third quarter of 2022.
The stronger-than-expected GDP figures means the size of the economy is now larger than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The GDP results were delivered by Stats SA deputy director-general Joe de Beer in Pretoria on Tuesday.
De Beer said agriculture and mining were two of the biggest drivers of economic growth.
“We tend to always compare the size of the economy with what happened pre-Covid and after Covid. And you will remember that in quarter one of this year, we were actually estimating for the economy to be larger than the pre-Covid levels. But with the negative that we had last quarter we dipped below that. And we are now again above the pre-Covid levels in quarter three of 2022.”
He said the economy has shown some green shoots, with eight out of ten sectors demonstrating an increase.
“On the plus side the strongest growth came from the agriculture sector which increased by nearly 20% and contributed half a percentage point to growth. Another half a percentage came from finance and business side. I think what is encouraging is that the economic growth was widely spread across the economy.
“Eight out of the ten sectors we identified showed a positive growth. The only negative came from the electricity and we all know the hardships that electricity, gas and water industry is suffering. The personal services contracted by 1.2%.”
The news of economic growth comes hot on the heels of a slight decline in the unemployment rate.
Just last week, the country’s official unemployment decreased to 32.9% in the same period with over one million jobs already created this year.
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