JOHANNESBURG, Aug 30 – South Africa’s economy grew at its slowest pace in almost two years in the second quarter as the manufacturing and mining sectors slumped after strikes, boosting the case for interest rate cuts while denting the government’s job-creation hopes.
The slowdown will make it even harder for the legions of the country’s unemployed — more than a million have lost their jobs since 2009 — to find work, likely keeping the unemployment rate above 25 percent and fuelling social tensions in Africa’s biggest economy.
Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday GDP growth slowed to 1.3 percent in the second quarter, its lowest rate since the third quarter of 2009 when the economy came out of its first recession in almost two decades.
Source: Reuters Africa newsletter
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