South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) soared by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics South Africa announced on Tuesday.
This comes after the GDP increased by 2.6% in the third quarter of 2018.
Stats SA’s deputy director-general responsible for economic statistics Joe de Beer said the main contributing sectors to the GDP was agriculture, transport, manufacturing, finance, personal services and electricity. Mining, trade, construction and government services are, according to De Beer, the sectors that contributed negatively to the GDP.
“The positive growth in the fourth quarter follows after the positive [growth] we had after the recession in the first half of the year,” he said.
De Beer said the manufacturing industry expanded by 4.5% in the fourth quarter and that the divisions that made the largest contributions to the increase were petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products, motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport products.
The finance, real estate and business services increased by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, with the increased economic activity being reported for financial intermediation, insurance, auxiliary activities and real estate.
The transport, storage and communication industry increased by 7.7% and this was attributed to land transport and the transport of support services.
In contrast, the trade, catering and accommodation industry decreased by 0.7% and there was a decreased economic activity that was reported in wholesale trade, motor trade and catering and accommodation.
Giving a breakdown of how the individual sectors contributed to the overall 1.4% GDP figure, De Beer said the mining decreased by 3.8% and contributed -0.3 of a percentage point to GDP growth, with construction decreasing by 0.7% and made a 0% to the GDP.
On the upside, he said, the transport sector made a positive contribution of 0.7%, followed by manufacturing, which contributed 0.6% with the agriculture sector contributing 0.2% to the overall growth.
The finance and the personal services sectors contributed 0.5% and 0.1% respectively. – SAnews.gov.za
