South African Slips To Recession As Economy Growth Slows

South Africa’s economy contracted by 0.7 percent in the second quarter of the year, pushing the country into recession because of steep declines in the agricultural, transport and retail sectors, data showed on Tuesday.
The data is a stinging blow to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has staked his reputation on kick-starting growth after a decade of stagnation under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.
The rand weakened more than two percent to the dollar and government bonds fell after the data was released.
“We are in a recession. We reported a contraction in the first quarter ... and now in the second quarter with a fall of 0.7 percent,” South Africa’s Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said.
Statistics South Africa said the 29.2 percent slump in agricultural output in the second quarter contributed 0.8 percentage points towards the gross domestic product slump, while the fall in the transport, communication and storage contributed 0.4 percentage points.
Stats SA data also said the economic contraction in the first quarter was steeper than initially recorded, at 2.6 percent.