Technical recession partly due to drop in agriculture sector: Nene
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene says there's no need for panic - following news that the country's entered a technical recession.
He says government's confident it can turn the situation around.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing, he says he was surprised by the 0,7% decline in GDP growth in the second quarter of 2018 - following a 2.6% reduction in the first quarter.
The contraction in GDP put SA in its first recession since 2009.
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Nene says the decline of 29% in agriculture was one of the main reasons for the contraction.
"It's mainly agriculture taking a 29% knock, a slight recovery in mining but not adequate to offset what agriculture took away - that's in the primary sector. Manufacturing is also struggling. The main drag was agriculture - it took away 0.8% of that growth," Nene said.