South Africa Avoids Recession

There have been concerns about the weakness of the rand (Image credits: Reuters)

South Africa has narrowly avoided recession. The latest GDP figures show that in the third quarter the economy grew by 0.7% as compared to the previous three months - in the second quarter that figure was -1.3%.

Had today's figure been negative as well, that would have put South Africa into a technical recession.

BBC News report continues:
But the GDP number for the quarter was considerably below the 1.1% growth that economists were broadly expecting.

Worries are growing over South Africa's economic plight.

It has a number of problems, ranging from growing deficits, to a weakness in the rand, to falling commodity prices, a lingering power crisis and a drought which, despite some recent rainfall, in some areas still threatens much of the country's agricultural output.