Info

South Africa’s economy contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter of the year, following a revised 2.6% shrinkage in the first quarter, therefore slipping into a technical recession, the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said yesterday.

“The largest negative contributors to growth in [gross domestic product] GDP in the second quarter were agriculture, transport and trade,” Stats SA said.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry decreased by 29.2% and contributed a negative 0.8 percentage points to the change in gross domestic product.

The decrease was mainly because of a drop in the production of field crops and horticultural products.

Transport, storage and communication fell 4.9%, taking away 0.4 percentage points.

Trade, catering and accommodation were down 1.9% and contributed -0.3 percentage points.

The main positive contributions came from the mining industry