South Africa’s GDP shrinks as load shedding continues to drain the economy

SOUTH Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2022, Stats SA reported on Tuesday.

The decline matches economist and analyst predictions, which ranged between a 0.5% decline and a 1.2% decline. It comes after surprise growth in the first quarter of the year – though this has also been revised downward from 1.9% to 1.7%.

The year-on-year growth in GDP was also flat, at just 0.2% from Q2 2021.

South Africa’s economy was hit with some of the highest levels of load shedding on record during the second quarter of the year, while industries were also battered by heavy flooding in KwaZulu Natal.

State power utility Eskom implemented electricity outages for more than half of the days in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations, adding to the record blackouts in the financial year through March that hobbled economic output.

Seven out of the