Off the wire
• Singapore stocks close 0.21 pct higher  • Roundup: S.Korean chaebol heads deny bribery allegations involving president's confidante  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Dec. 6  • Weather forecast for world cities -- Dec. 6  • Commentary: China remains committed to early political solution to Syrian conflict  • National archeological park to be built in E. China  • Goldman Sachs forecasts lower China growth for 2017  • China's biggest meat processor completes deal with New Zealand's biggest meat cooperative  • Turkey arrests opposition chief adviser in coup probe  • 2nd LD-Writethru-Xinhua Insight: China issues first white paper on traditional Chinese medicine  
You are here: 　 Home

S. African economy grows by 0.2 pct in Q3

Xinhua, December 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was 0.2 percent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2016, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday.

The main contributors to the GDP growth were the mining and quarrying industry; finance, real estate and business services; and general government services, Stats SA said in its quarterly economic review.

Mining and quarrying increased by 5.1 percent, largely as a result of higher production in the mining of "other" metal ores, in particular iron ore.

In monetary terms, the nominal GDP was estimated at 1,087 billion rand (131 billion U.S. dollars) for Q3, which is 18 billion rand (about 1.3 billion dollars) more than Q2.

Four industries contracted in the third quarter, namely agriculture, forestry and fishing (-0.3 percent); manufacturing (-3.2 percent); electricity, gas and water (-2.9 percent); and trade, catering and accommodation (-2.1 percent).

The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry has been in decline for seven consecutive quarters.

"Drought is still the largest contributor to the decline in the agriculture sector but we are seeing that the 2016 drought is not as bad as it was in 2015," said Joe de Beer, Deputy Director-General of Economic Statistics at Stats SA.

Exports decreased by 26.4 percent, mainly because of lower exports of precious metals and transport equipment, while imports decreased by 4.9 percent.

South African economy grew by a rate of 3.5 percent in the second quarter. GDP had expanded by 0.3 percent in the third quarter of 2015. Endit