Economic growth down: Stats SA

LazyLion

LazyLion

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South Africa's economy shrunk by 0.6 percent in the first three months of the year, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday.

"The seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the first quarter of 2014 decreased by an annualised rate of 0.6 percent compared with an increase of 3.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013," it said in a statement.

"The main contributors to the decrease in economic activity in the first quarter of 2014 were the mining and quarrying industry (-1.3 percentage points) and the manufacturing industry (-0.7 of a percentage point)."

Positive contributions by other industries included finance, real estate and business services (0.4 of a percentage point), the wholesale, retail and motor trade; catering and accommodation industry (0.3 of a percentage point) and the transport, storage and communication industry and general government services (each contributing 0.2 of a percentage point).


Source : Sapa /hdw/jk
Date : 27 May 2014 12:06
 
So that means more growth for WC, and a big slowdown for Gauteng
 
With all the strikes , cost of business because of e-tolls... not surprised at all.
 
Still, you are much better off today than you were 20 years ago. A few percentages this way or that way, who cares.
 
Africaner said:
Still, you are much better off today than you were 20 years ago. A few percentages this way or that way, who cares.
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True that.
People are so ****ing happy these days, it's almost palpable.
Just a few delightful examples off the top of my head:

- Those huge smiles on the faces of children as you drive by a protest.
- People relaxing and bathing in the winter sun as they enjoy their multi-month long strikes.
- People coming together on the steps of our hospitals, sharing stories, and buckets.
- The crooked smile of a beggar on Rabie Street as I weave my way home on a barely lit pothole ridden road.
- The refreshing feeling of a cold Eskom blackout shower early in the morning.
- A long awaited phone call from a family member, to catch up, and exchange ideas about how or why someone you know was hacked to death with a panga on their farm last night.
- The cool glow given off by flecks of cigarette ash on your dashboard as you pass under the glow of an etoll gantry at night.
- Those delightful, playful pre-travel exchanges with your girlfriend as you make sure she's clued-up on tactics on how to avoid a brutal rape when travelling alone.

These are all beautiful things my friends. Now go out. And spread the love!
 
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DreamKing said:
no. it implies we should vote anc in power up until jesus come.
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It implies exactly what I said. A big contraction in Gauteng and other economies that haven't moved away from raw minerals, and an increase for the WC, whose economy is heavily skewed towards finance, real estate, business services and agro processing
 
JStrike said:
It implies exactly what I said. A big contraction in Gauteng and other economies that haven't moved away from raw minerals, and an increase for the WC, whose economy is heavily skewed towards finance, real estate, business services and agro processing
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Be careful of this in the WC. When finance sector crashes, it crashes hard. Ask bankers in London :D

You want more manufacturing in the WC. The agricultural sector is good though.
 
zippy said:
Be careful of this in the WC. When finance sector crashes, it crashes hard. Ask bankers in London :D

You want more manufacturing in the WC. The agricultural sector is good though.
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Manufacturing has started ticking up in certain areas in the WC, which is encouraging. But it is downward trend. Agri/Wine is doing very well. The focus is on growing the Software and BPO sectors. But finance is our bread and butter. It dominates our economy
 
JStrike said:
Manufacturing has started ticking up in certain areas in the WC, which is encouraging. But it is downward trend. Agri/Wine is doing very well. The focus is on growing the Software and BPO sectors. But finance is our bread and butter. It dominates our economy
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Perhaps.. but you forget WC becomes dead when Gauteng contracts. Basically all major corps are based in Gauteng with software outsourced to WC lately due to the higher % of IT labor there vs cost. 2ndly since we heading into the much expected recession like times where the 1st world recovers and 3rd world suffers, as per typical cyclic nature people left Jhb and headed to Cpt. Ths results in a skew for entry and mid-level positions which can has been seen since 2009? which gets worse annually.

Personally I reckon its better up here when economy goes slow than down in Cpt but that's just me. i reckon next 5 will be horrid before it starts slowly turning around again.

Ps. notice how international flights are pulling back to Jhb as the hub?
 
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krycor said:
Perhaps.. but you forget WC becomes dead when Gauteng contracts. Basically all major corps are based in Gauteng with software outsourced to WC lately due to the higher % of IT labor there vs cost. 2ndly since we heading into the much expected recession like times where the 1st world recovers and 3rd world suffers, as per typical cyclic nature people left Jhb and headed to Cpt. Ths results in a skew for entry and mid-level positions which can has been seen since 2009? which gets worse annually.

Personally I reckon its better up here when economy goes slow than down in Cpt but that's just me. i reckon next 5 will be horrid before it starts slowly turning around again.

Ps. notice how international flights are pulling back to Jhb as the hub?
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Interesting observations. The WC economy is very closely tied to Europe (More than Gauteng) due to Finance, BPO, Software and very importantly these days, Wine. So how the recovery goes there will influence us a lot. What is interesting, after the recession ended in SA, WC was slow to recover compared to GP. This is attributed to our manufacturing falling off a cliff, and it is not expected to recover all that much. Which means our growth lagged, as Finance et all had to pick up the slack.

All that being said, if National Gov manages to increase benefication and increase taxes on unprocessed minerals, then GP could be in for very good times. But I doubt government will be able to play hardball with the mining companies
 
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