This gives an annualised growth rate of 6,3%. 

Stats SA announced on Tuesday that manufacturing and trade were the biggest contributors to growth in the final quarter of the year.  

The country is still reeling from the economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. 

Chief economist at Econometrix Azar Jammine says the latest statistics are signs of improvement. 

“I don’t think quarter four was set to give any major surprises. I think generally speaking it was recognised that the economy had been in recovery phase through the second half of last year with every progressive listing of lockdown restriction. 

“The figure that came out was a lot better than the figure that most people anticipated.” 

But the overall picture isn’t so impressive.  

The South African economy slumped by 7% in 2020, putting the annual growth figure for the country at its lowest since records began.  

Despite the staggering figure, projections from last year estimated a double-digit contraction due to a fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. 

The economy has been hard-hit by the unprecedented health crisis, which affected jobs and businesses. 

The South African economy came to a standstill last year in March, with the exception of essential services. 

Jammine says it’s the worst outcome in recent history. 

“Compared with what was anticipated at the beginning of the year, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, -7% was an enormous shock. It was by far the worst annual growth figure that has been recorded for the South African economy in our living memory. So, from that point of view it was very poor,” he says. 

“But when you bear in mind that in the middle of the year people were talking about possible double digits declines in growth, the -7% has turned out to be not the worst-case scenario. It’s probably turned out to be the average case scenario that has been expected for the year as a whole.” 

Jammine adds the easing of lockdown restrictions helped the economy recover from its downward trajectory.  

“People probably underestimated the extent to which lifting of lockdown restrictions would reverse the downward trends and certainly with every lifting from level 4 to 3 to 2 to 1, we saw a build-up of different areas of economic activity,” he says. 

According to Jammine, the vaccine rollout boosted confidence in the global markets. 

“The other things is that internationally, we also saw a very firm revival in optimism, especially in November and December, following the announcements of new vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, which encouraged the belief that the world economy would grow faster,” he explains.   

He further adds a return to the hard lockdown may prove detrimental for the economy again.  

Jacaranda FM