Helena Wasserman
Business Insider SA
SA’s economy shrank by an appalling 3.2% in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter – the worst performance in a decade.
Weak levels of investment and more than 270 hours of loadshedding wreaked havoc across the economy, while a gold mining strike and a weak grape harvest added to the pain.
The latest numbers from the Statistics SA show that the economy was exactly the same size in the first quarter of 2019 than it had been in the same quarter of 2018.
“The economy (is) no larger in 2019Q1 than it was a year earlier. This data release reflects poorly on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ‘economic stimulus and recovery plan’, launched in September 2018,” Price Waterhouse Coopers said in a report. The rand took a painful hit following the GDP release, falling almost 2% to R14.76/$.