Story below from tonight's AFR webpage "breaking news"
I know nothing of South Africa, but post it for your, and others, interest.
Cheers.
bendigo
....................................
South African economy returns to growth South Africa’s economy avoided its second recession in five years, expanding an annualised 0.6 per cent in the three months through June. Gross domestic product rose after contracting 0.6 per cent in the first quarter, the statistics office said in a report released on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median estimate of 23 economists in a Bloomberg survey was 0.9 per cent. Africa’s second-largest economy rebounded from a slump in the first quarter that was caused by a five-month strike at the world’s largest platinum producers. The economy is still under pressure with Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene saying on Monday he would probably cut the government’s growth projection for this year to 1.8 per cent from 2.7 per cent estimated in February. “The environment has been challenging with strikes and supply-side constraints, particularly on the energy” side, Mr Nene said in an interview in Johannesburg on Monday. That’s “added to the challenges we have been confronted with in order to achieve the growth target”. The mining strike, which ended on June 24, was followed a week later by a stoppage by about 220,000 workers in the metals and engineering industry that forced car makers to shut plants. The business confidence index measured by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry fell in July to the lowest level in almost 11 years. The rand has dropped 21 per cent against the US dollar since the start of last year, the worst performance of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, helping to improve the competitiveness of exporters. At the same time it’s fuelled inflation, prompting the central bank to increase its benchmark repurchase rate by 75 basis points this year to 5.75 per cent.
