Data by South Africa’s Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa on Tuesday said the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018.
According to highlights from the release, agriculture declined the most, recording an annualized 29.2% contraction; just as manufacturing and trade 0.3% and 1.9% respectively, while mining production expanded 4.9% from the previous quarter.
The economic plunged by 2.6% in the first quarter.
Already, the nation’s currency has reacted expectedly with the South African rand sliding to R15.22 against the US dollar.
This is coming nine year’s after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s predecessor suffered the same false start: a recession in his first six months in office.
The figure is contrary to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of a 0.6% expansion. The economy grew 0.4 percent from a year earlier.
The rand fell 2.3% to R15.2094/$ by 11:45 a.m. in Johannesburg on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
A contraction for the fourth quarter of 2016 was later revised to show growth, resulting in this being the first recession since the financial crisis of 2009.