South Africa’s Economy ‘Soared’ in Q4 2018 as Farming Expands

PRETORIA – South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) soared by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) announced on Tuesday.

The country’s economy expanded at the end of last year with the help of growth in agriculture and manufacturing, data showed on Tuesday.

This is a fantastic boost for President Cyril Ramaphosa who has pledged to re-start growth after a decade of stagnation in SA under Jacob Zuma’s leadership.

StatsSA said the economy grew 1.4 percent in October-December, after expanding by a revised 2.6 percent in the third quarter.

The growth slightly lagged market expectations of a quarter-on-quarter GDP expansion of 1.6 percent, according to a Reuters poll.

The rand extended its session gains after the data, trading 0.51 percent firmer at 14.1275 per dollar as of 0941 GMT.

The statistics agency said farming expanded 7.9 percent in the quarter, while manufacturing rose 4.5 percent. Mining, however, fell 3.8 percent.

On an annual basis, Africa’s most industrialised economy grew by 0.8 percent compared to a revised 1.4 percent expansion in 2017.

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana/Reuters and SA Gov News; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Andrew Cawthorne and Jenni Baxter)