South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to the official data.
The contraction is the second quarterly drop in a row since the last quarter of 2008 when the economy shrank by 1.8 per cent, says Statistics South Africa.
According to economists, two consecutive quarters of negative growth means an economy is technically in recession. A senior treasury official said here yesterday that the South African economy, the continent's largest, was expected to contract further before growing again in the second half of the year.
"The seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the first quarter of 2009 decreased by an annualised rate of 6.4 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. This is the first instance of two consecutive quarters of negative growth since the fourth quarter of 1992," said Stats SA as the world is experiencing the pinch of the global financial crisis.
The sectors that led to a reduced GDP figure in the first quarter were the manufacturing industry (-3.3 percentage points), mining and quarrying (-1.7), finance, real estate and business services industry (-0.5).
According to Stats SA executive manager of national accounts Joe De Beer, the mining sector recorded the second lowest level since the second quarter of 1967 at 31.9 per cent.
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