South Africa enters first recession since apartheid

27 May, 2009 in South Africa

source: Telegraph
26 May 2009

South Africa entered its first recession since apartheid as the global crisis pounded demand for its main exports, leaving growth down 6.4pc in the first quarter, the government said on Tuesday.
The market had expected a drop but the showing was far worse than most forecasts, adding to pressure on new President Jacob Zuma, who took office just two weeks ago promising to create jobs and fight poverty.

“The world deteriorated beyond expectations … [As we are] very dependent on foreign trade there was no way we were going to escape from that,” said Johan Rossouw, chief economist at Vector Securities and Derivatives.
Seasonally adjusted real GDP for the first quarter of 2009 decreased by an annualised rate of 6.4pc compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, said the Statistics SA, the government’s compiler.

The economy had contracted by 1.8pc in the last [continue reading]

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