Whether or not SA escaped a technical recession will be revealed at 11:30am when Statistics SA releases first-quarter GDP figures. Investec Bank economist Kamilla Kaplan forecast in her weekly note on Friday that SA’s economy rebounded in the first quarter of 2017 to 0.8% growth from a 0.3% contraction in the fourth quarter of 2016. "Advance indications provided by high-frequency economic releases suggests that much of the improvement in GDP in the first quarter will be derived from positive contributions from the agriculture and mining sectors," Kaplan said. "The dissipation of the drought in most of the country and higher commodity prices are expected to have supported increased activity in the agriculture and mining sectors.… In contrast, activity in the manufacturing sector contracted for the third consecutive quarter, mainly on account of weak domestic demand. Similarly, the trade sector contracted in the first quarter, reflecting the effects of depressed consumer confidence, m...
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