South Africa’s economy: resilience or retraction?
The government has celebrated as evidence of the nation’s financial ‘resilience’ the fact that it has avoided a recession. But there is no sugar-coating the country’s dire fiscal performance
21 March 2024 - 05:00
The latest GDP data shows an economy that has been mired in deep stagnation for more than a decade, was severely hit by the pandemic and has experienced an exceedingly weak recovery since then.
In rand terms, real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2023 reached R1.158-trillion — much the same as its pre-Covid peak of R1.150-trillion at the start of 2020. In other words, the economy is still roughly the same size as it was four years ago. Economic activity is still below pre-pandemic levels in six out of 10 sectors...
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