SA AVOIDED a technical recession in the second quarter, but most of the cheer is quickly fizzling out as economic indicators still point to near-zero growth in 2016. Low growth makes fighting high unemployment difficult as investment by the private sector remains low, while the government is intentionally slowing growth in spending to bring down a large budget deficit. The economy grew a seasonally adjusted and annualised 3.3% in the second quarter — the highest quarterly growth since the fourth quarter of 2014 — after contracting 1.2% in the previous quarter, Statistics SA’s GDP data showed on Tuesday. The economy expanded 0.6% in the second quarter of 2016 compared with the second quarter of 2015. But, while 2016 GDP growth could have surprised on the upside, it might still not be enough to avert a sovereign downgrade, FNB senior industry analyst Jason Muscat said. Depressed consumer and business confidence indices pointed to a slowdown in growth in the third quarter as rising inf...
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