SA economy grows by 0.4% despite load shedding
The South African
economy has expanded by 0.4%, Statistics South Africa announced on Tuesday.
Stats SA released the country's GDP figures for the first quarter of 2023.
Economist Dawie Roodt says this was better than expected considering the record levels of load shedding since the start of the year.
"We also have to remember not only was it higher than expected at 0.4 but the previous quarter was also revised upwards and that means the base was filled up so technically it's quite a bit better than what was expected.
"It also means that the South African economy is not in a so-called technical recession but we should get too happy that we are not in a recession at 0.4% growth - it is still extremely weak economic growth."
READ: Eskom suspends load shedding until Tuesday afternoon
Stats SA says the main drivers were the manufacturing and finance industries.
Eight of the ten industries recorded growth in the first three months of the year.
But Roodt says the country is far from being economically stable.
"The ideal economic growth for the country must be an absolute minimum equal to population growth and in the case of South Africa that must be 1.2 or 1.3%.
"At this rate, things will basically stay the same but for a poor country, of course, we need much stronger economic growth, so ideally for South Africa we should be aiming for 5 or 6% economic growth and we are well away from that."
