Browsing: South African Recession

South Africa, Africa’s second-largest economy could be in deep trouble, as the nation’s currency—rand eased against the dollar early on Wednesday, whereby the currency kept on sustaining losses a day after the central bank surprisingly cut lending rates, according to information from Reuters.

The nation’s finance minister Tito Mboweni also gave a warning on the possible trail towards a deep recession this year. In a different occasion, the finance minister highlighted that a recession could hit due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, that has put the world economy at risk.

However, South Africa’s diversified economy was already in recession before the COVID-19 pandemic took a large toll on its economy.

READ:Recession could hit Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank says

At 0625 GMT, the rand traded at 18.4770 per dollar, 0.9 per cent weaker than its previous close, according to data presented by Reuters.

However, according to the South African …

South Africa’s economy has reduced by 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, this is according to information from the South African statistician on Tuesday.

This scenario followed a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the third quarter, which means that the economy was in recession for the last half of 2019.

South Africa last entered a recession – when the GDP falls for two consecutive quarters – in the second quarter of 2018. This is South Africa’s third recession since 1994.

Further, the stats office highlighted that, for the whole of 2019, the South African economy grew by only 0.2 per cent (in real terms). In 2018, it saw growth of only 0.8 per cent, and yet it is the lowest reading since 2009 when the economy contracted by 1.5 per cent.

GDP shrank 0.5 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter after a 0.1 per cent expansion in …