South Africa: A year to forget

The final round of South African data released this year supported our view that the economy faltered in recent months. Output fell by 0.6% q/q saar in Q3, and the latest figures suggest that the economy may have entered another technical recession in Q4. We now expect that GDP only grew by about 0.3% over the year as a whole, which would be the worst result since the financial crisis. While we would like to end the year on a positive note, all signs point to growth remaining weak in 2020.