South Africa's economy experienced a sharp decline

The economy of the Republic of South Africa also recorded a decline in the last quarter of last year, but the pace of decline slowed down. However, developments in previous quarters have led to the sharpest decline in more than 70 years in 2020. According to the Statistical Office of South Africa, gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 4.1 percent year on year in the last quarter of last year. It thus slightly slowed down the pace of the decline from the previous quarter, when the decline reached 6.2 percent. The economy contracted for the third consecutive quarter, falling 17.5 percent year on year in the second quarter. It did not record a decline only in the first quarter of last year. Even in that period, however, economic development was not very favorable, as in the first three months of 2020, the South African economy grew by only 0.1 percent year on year. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 6.3 percent in the last quarter. The growth rate slowed so sharply, reaching 67.3 percent in the period from July to the end of September. At that time, the economy responded to the easing of measures following the previous wave of the new coronavirus pandemic, which caused a 51.7 percent quarter-on-quarter economic downturn in the second quarter. As a result of year-on-year developments for the whole of last year, South Africa's economy declined by 7 percent in 2020 after growing 0.2 percent in 2019. This is the sharpest decline in South Africa's economy since 1946.