Economic growth is expected to have slowed significantly in the fourth quarter of 2022 on the back of intense rolling blackouts, a rise in the cost of living, high interest rates and elevated levels of inflation.
Most economists say they expect that growth would have stalled in the fourth quarter and expanded by between two and two-point-five percent for the full year of 2022.
This as Statistics South Africa prepares to release the Gross Domestic Product figures this morning.
Chief economist at Econometrix, Azar Jammine, says the mining and manufacturing sectors are expected to have weighed in on economic growth in the fourth quarter.
“Essentially, we have received fairly weak data with regard to mining and manufacturing production, and the retail sales have also not been great. So, there is a chance that the GDP for the fourth quarter of 2022 will come in negative, which is a contrast to the unexpectedly strong six percent growth of the third quarter of 2022. So, I think most people are expecting a relatively weak outcome, influenced in large measure by the intensification of load shedding towards the end of last year,” says Jammine.
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