South Africa’s economy has grown by a commendable percentage of 1.4 percent in the third quarter after the end of a five month platinum mines strike.
According to the statistics office report, there was a 0.5 percent growth in the second quarter and a revised 1.6 percent contraction in the first quarter
“The economy grew fairly well in the quarter, although we are not close to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, “said Francois Stofberg, an economist at Efficient Group.
The economy of US$ 321bn was 4.4 percent larger in 2013 compared to that of previous period, calculated after rebasing the data to 2010 and adding categories. This may lower the country’s debt as a percentage of GDP.
South Africa is a leader in platimnum production. In 2005, it produced 78% of the world’s platinum and 39% of the world’s palladium. The country earned export revenues of US$4bn from 163,000 kilograms (5,200,000 ozt) of platinum produced in 2010.
There have been previous reports of increase in South Africa’s mining output by a 5.3 percent, due to a gradual return to productivity of the mines.