In the first quarter of the current year, South Africa's seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 2.2 percent quarter on quarter, while the country's unadjusted GDP rose by 0.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to the detailed statistics released by Statistics South Africa.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year the country's manufacturing sector registered a decrease of 6.4 percent in output from the previous quarter. Six of the ten manufacturing divisions reported negative growth rates in the first quarter, including the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery division and the petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products division.