{"id":863138,"date":"2026-06-09T12:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863138"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:10:48","slug":"great-surprise-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/863138\/great-surprise-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Great surprise for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s economy grew by 0.5% in the first three months of 2026, despite the turbulent end to the quarter, comfortably beating market expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest figure beat the 0.3% median estimate of 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA noted that the conflict in the Middle East began towards the end of February, more than halfway through the first quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of the conflict was felt in the sharp fuel price increases in April, which may be reflected in the second-quarter GDP estimates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA said that finance, agriculture, trade and transport did the heavy lifting on the production (supply) side of the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expenditure (demand) side was supported by declines in imports and by rises in household consumption, government consumption, and exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine industries were stronger overall, with the finance industry the main positive contributor to production, expanding 0.9% and adding 0.2 of a percentage point to GDP growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture, trade, and transport & communication also made notable contributions, expanding by 3.9%. Field crops and horticulture products, mainly fruit, underpinned the industry\u2019s stronger performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade industry also extended its gains for a sixth consecutive quarter, supported by stronger wholesale trade, motor trade, food & beverages and accommodation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While transport and mining were up, manufacturing misfired over the quarter, weakening by 0.8% – the second straight decline, with a drag including petroleum & chemicals, iron & steel, and wood, paper & publishing divisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While glass & non-metallic mineral products, motor vehicles & transport equipment, electrical machinery and textiles & clothing were stronger, it was not enough to lift manufacturing into positive territory.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Expenditure side <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA said that the expenditure side of the economy was lifted by weaker imports, as well as a rise in household consumption, government consumption and exports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Household consumption rose by a marginal 0.1%, the lowest growth rate in eight quarters. Household utilities, such as water and electricity, and transport were the largest positive contributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumers spent less on food & non-alcoholic beverages and on alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotics, consistent with 0% growth in retail sales on the production side of the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spending on restaurants & hotels was also down. The miscellaneous goods & services category was the most significant negative contributor, reflecting a decline in insurance expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA added the slowdown in imports was driven by weaker trade in precious metals, mineral products, machinery & electrical equipment, textiles & textile articles, and animal & vegetable fats and oils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exports rose by 0.5%, driven by increases in trade in mineral products, vegetable products, prepared foodstuffs, beverages & tobacco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manufacturing, trade and mining industries thus drew into their stockpiles to meet demand, resulting in an annualised R22.4 billion drawdown in inventories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s economy grew by 0.5% in the first three months of 2026, comfortably beating market expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":862990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[2720,1809],"class_list":["post-863138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-gdp","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863138"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863147,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863138\/revisions\/863147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}