South Africa’s economy probably grew in the second quarter of 2019, but it could hardly have done worse. In the first quarter, load shedding torpedoed any prospects for decent overall growth in the year. The economy shrank 3.2% in Q1, the worst performance since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Based on the data that has filtered in from the period, economists expect that the economy managed to eke out some growth between 1 April to 30 June, thus avoiding the dreaded “R” word as two straight quarters of contraction signal a recession. . Among other things, it means the economy is still lagging behind population growth, so South Africans are still getting poorer.
Economic growth in itself is not a panacea for South Africa’s economic woes — an economy can expand without generating meaningful job creation , and the benefits of growth are never going to be evenly spread.