South Africa: Economic growth picks up in the second quarter
GDP growth improves, as expected: As anticipated by our Consensus, the economy strengthened at a faster clip in the second quarter, with South Africa’s GDP increasing 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, following a 0.1% expansion in the previous quarter. This marks the best result since Q3 2022.
Household spending does the heavy lifting: Relative to the prior period’s data, figures in Q2 improved for private consumption—which accounts for roughly two-thirds of GDP—(+0.8% vs +0.5% in Q1), government consumption (+0.7% vs -0.2% in Q1) and fixed investment (-1.4% vs -1.5% in Q1). In contrast, readings softened for exports of goods and services (-3.2% vs +0.9% in Q1) and imports of goods and services (-2.1% vs +2.0% in Q1).
Looking at sectoral data, growth was driven by the manufacturing, mining and trade sectors.
In annual terms, economic output increased 0.6% in Q2, following 0.8% growth in the previous quarter.