SA’s economy grows by 0.6% in fourth quarter
South Africa’s economy grew by 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024, following a decrease of 0.1% in the third quarter.
Despite much less load-shedding during 2024, the annual growth was only 0.6% compared to 0.7% in 2023.
Fourth quarter growth was mainly driven by 17.2% growth in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries.
The manufacturing industry decreased by 0.6%
The largest negative contributions were reported for basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products, motor vehicles, parts, and accessories.
Statistics South Africa released the GDP figures for the period between October and December in a press briefing on Tuesday morning.
Stats SA's Joe de Beer says the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries increased, contributing 0.4% of a percentage point to the positive growth.
De Beer says this was due to increased economic activities for field crops and animal products.
"The rest of the economy contracted, but although the percentages differ from -0.2 in personal service all the way to -1.4 for electricity. Their contributions to the total economy are basically negative zeros. If we take the small negative growth rates we see it didn't really move the needle too much."
ALSO READ: