SA Market has Good News

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has now seen two successive quarters of growth with the country's economy expanding by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of last year.

The expansion comes after a revised figure of 2.6% in the third quarter; it's welcomed news as the country entered into a technical recession last year.

Economists polled by Reuters had predicted economic growth of 1.6% for the three months to the end of December.

The biggest gains were in agriculture which saw a quarter-on-quarter increase of 7.9%. This is good news as the country has been recovering from a drought.

Manufacturing saw a gain of 4.5% and finance at 2.7%.

However, mining saw a decrease of 3.8% while construction contracted by 0.7%.

Stats SA says overall, the country's economy grew 0.8% last year versus a revised 1.4% expansion in 2017.