South Africa GDP Growth Rate

Last Release

Dec 31, 2022

Actual

-1.3

Units In

1.6

Frequency

Quarterly

Next Release

Mar 04, 2026

Time to Release

2 Months 29 Days 9 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
13.9 Sep 2020	-17.4 Jun 2020	0.61 %	1993-2022	Statistics South Africa

South Africa is the most developed country in Africa and was the largest until 2014, when it was overtaken by Nigeria. The largest sector of the economy is services which accounts for around 73 percent of GDP. Within services, the most important are finance, real estate and business services (21.6 percent); government services (17 percent); wholesale, retail and motor trade, catering and accommodation (15 percent); and transport, storage and communication (9.3 percent). Manufacturing accounts for 13.9 percent; mining and quarrying for around 8.3 percent and agriculture for only 2.6 percent.

Latest Updates

The South African economy advanced by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2025, following an upwardly revised 0.9% growth in the prior period and marking the fourth consecutive quarter of expansion. Nine out of ten industries registered growth, with trade (+1% vs +1.4% in Q2) contributing the most, alongside mining (+2.3% vs +3.5%), agriculture (+1.1% vs +2.5%) and finance, real estate and business services (+0.3% vs +0.7%). Conversely, the utilities sector contracted (-2.5% vs 0.2%). From the demand perspective, household consumption (+0.7% vs +1%), government spending (+0.3% vs +0.9%) and fixed investment (+1.6% vs -1.6%) kept growth supported. On the other hand, changes in inventories subtracted 0.1 percentage point. Net trade also contributed negatively to expenditure on GDP, as the 0.7% rise in exports was outpaced by a 2.2% increase in imports. On a yearly basis, the GDP expanded by 2.1% in Q3, the fastest expansion since Q3 2022, accelerating from the upwardly revised 0.9% in Q2.