South Africa's economy contracted sharply in the first quarter of 2019, the national statistics authority said Tuesday, piling pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa's newly elected administration. According to Stats SA, gross domestic product (GDP) for Africa's most developed economy contracted by 3.2 percent in the first three months of the year compared with the previous quarter, the largest quarterly drop in about 10 years.
The slump came in contrast to 1.4 percent growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2018 and was far below the average 1.6 percent decline predicted by analysts.
The slip was driven mainly by declines in the agriculture, manufacturing and mining sectors which reported drops of 13 percent, 8.8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively.
Depressing economic activity further was electricity rationing, infamously known as load-shedding.
Cash-strapped power monopoly Eskom, which generates 90 percent of the nation's energy, sporadically imposed the rotational power rationing in February, plunging swathes of the country into darkness for long hours and sparking public anger at the ANC-led government. The head of the North West University's Business School, Professor Raymond Parsons, said rolling electricity power cuts had been grossly underestimated as the main culprits in the first quarter and had "probably shaved about 0.6 percent off expected growth for this year."
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