Data released by Statistics South Africa shows that the country’s economy grew by 0.6% in the second quarter of 2023 from 0.4% in the first quarter.
Contribution to the marginal improvement came from the agriculture, manufacturing, mining, finance and personal service industries among others.
Chief Economist at Efficient Group, Dawie Roodt says the economy should be growing in accordance with its population rate.
Roodt says, “Well at least its positive but the really bad part about that, it’s significantly below population growth at the moment , about 1,2%, and so we at least need to grow the economy at the rate of 1,2% just to stay at one place. In the meantime, if you compare South Africa to most other places around the world, their economic growth is well above population growth and they are either pulling away from South Africa or they’re catching up. Economic growth of anything less than 1% is simply not acceptable and we need to aim for something like 4,5, or eve 6%.”
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