“South Africa’s economy contracted by 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2016, raising the prospect of a recession if growth for the current quarter comes in negative.
Gross domestic product (GDP) data from Statistics SA showed on Wednesday that the economy shrank 1.2% in the first quarter of 2016 compared with growth of 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The Reserve Bank had expected the year-on-year figure to be “barely positive”‚ following year-on-year growth of just 0.5% in the final quarter of last year.”
