South Africa slips into recession as economy shrinks

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa slipped into technical recession for the first time since 2009 after the economy contracted in the first quarter, led by weak manufacturing and trade sectors, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday.

Africa's most developed economy contracted by 0.7 percent in the first quarter after shrinking by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the statistics agency said.

The SA economy moved into #recession with Q1:2017#GDP down 0,7% following a 0,3% contraction in the Q4:2016
https://t.co/zDyVIRpqJM pic.twitter.com/MSK0SWFEw8

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) June 6, 2017

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a quarter-on-quarter GDP expansion of 0.9 percent.

Gross domestic product rose 1.0 percent on an unadjusted year-on-year basis in the first quarter, compared with 0.7 percent contraction in the previous three months, the agency said.

Largest negative contributor to growth in #GDP in Q1:2017 was trade, catering & accommodation industry, down by 5,9% https://t.co/zDyVIRpqJM pic.twitter.com/y8QHsBAhrO

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) June 6, 2017

Household expenditure decreased by 1.4 percent in the first three months of the year after an increase of 1.3 percent in the previous three months.

Government expenditure was down 0.2 after a marginal increase of 0.1 percent in the previous quarter.

Expenditure on real gross domestic product fell by 0,8% in the first quarter of 2017 https://t.co/zDyVIRpqJM pic.twitter.com/9tzluXgTQQ

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) June 6, 2017