By Thebe Mabanga
South Africa’s economy outperformed expectations in the second quarter, with GDP expanding 0.8% year-on-year, driven by mining, manufacturing and strong household spending. Markets had forecast growth of between 0.5% and 0.6%.
“Following marginal growth of 0.1% in the first quarter of 2025, real gross domestic product strengthened by 0.8% in the second quarter,” Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said.
Stats SA highlighted manufacturing, mining and trade as the main drivers on the production side of the economy, while household consumption and softer imports supported demand. Each of the three key sectors, manufacturing, mining & quarrying, and trade, catering & accommodation, contributed 0.2 percentage points to overall growth.
After two consecutive quarters of decline, both manufacturing and mining returned to growth.
Manufacturing output expanded by 1.8%, while mining rose by 3.7%—its fastest pace since the first quarter of 2021, when it grew by 4.4%, according to Statistics South
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