South Africa's recession

South Africa has officially entered into a recession as gross domestic product numbers for quarter four of 2019 show that the economy shrank 1.4%. The fall means the country now finds itself in a technical recession which can be described as two consecutive quarters of negative growth after the economy declined by 0.8% in quarter three. In total the economy in 2019 grew 0.2%. The growth is less than the already lacklustre projections by the IMF, World Bank and Moody’s rating agency which said the economy would grow by 0.7%, the Reserve Bank’s 0.6% and National Treasury’s paltry 0.3% estimate.1. Prof Mark Ellyn University of Cape Town Department of Economics 2. Anabel Bishop Chief Economist Investec 3. Ross Harvey Independent Economist