JOHANNESBURG - StatsSA has announced that South Africa's economy is bigger than what we thought. According to StatsSA's recounting exercise, the country's economy is 5.3% larger than previously stated.
It is now estimated at R8.04 trillion, rather than R7.64 trillion.
It has revised benchmarks for GDP used to calculate the entire output of the economy. It has also changed the base year used for comparisons from 2015 to 2022.
An estimate of illegal mining has now been included, meaning the mining sector grows by over 12 percent.
StatsSA has also improved methodology to assess real estate activity. Based on the revision, the economy grew by 0.9 percent last year, rather than 1.1 percent as previously recorded.
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Statistical agencies around the world rebase their economies every five years.
The revision is done worldwide after every five years. Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke says that the rebase years have been moved from 2015 to 2022.
He explains that in order to rebase properly, one must start from a year that is "normal". 2020 and 2021 were not "normal" years due to Covid-19.
"We settle on 2022 as the year which was relatively stable," he says. Looking at that, the economy got lifted by 4.3%."