Africa-Press – Eswatini. Are these consequences of the civil unrest witnessed in most parts of the country in June last year?
The wholesale and retail industry’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen to 13.6 per cent, which is a three-year low. The wholesale and retail industry is an integral part of every industry supply chain in the world, and it is the second largest contributor to the country’s GDP behind manufacturing. The latter’s contribution is close to 30 per cent. Analysts say the industry as a whole is very important to the world economic growth. GDP 2021 quarter four (October –December) figures sourced from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development show a contraction of almost two per cent when compared to the first quarter of the year under review.
Recorded
The lowest figure (13.1 per cent) in the last three years was last recorded in the second quarter of 2019. Notably, most businesses that were vandalised and looted in the past year during the deadly unrest were in the wholesale and retail space. The retail and wholesale market consists of sales of wholesale and retail services and related goods by entities (organisations, sole traders and partnerships) that provide the service of making goods available to consumers in convenient quantities and locations. Retailers are independent organisations in the distribution channel for consumer goods that buy goods from wholesalers or directly from manufacturers, break bulk, store goods, display goods for sale either physically or online and sometimes deliver.
Wholesalers are independent organisations in the distribution channel for consumers who buy in bulk, store goods, break bulk and sell primarily to retailers, professional authorities or to other wholesalers rather than to consumers. In terms of growth rates, there was a sharp contraction for the wholesale and retail sectors. From a 20.1 per cent growth in 2021 quarter two, the last three months of the past year’s figures did not make for riveting reading. The contraction was recorded at -6.4 per cent, which is the lowest since 2019 quarter three.
Contribution
The top five industries with the largest percentage contribution to the country’s GDP as per the latest figures, on the other hand, are manufacturing (28.4 per cent); wholesale and retail (13.6 per cent); agriculture, forestry and fishing (9.5 per cent); public administration (8.3 per cent); and taxes on products (8.3 per cent). An analyst, on condition of anonymity, told this publication that it would take some time for the retail and wholesale industry to recover, as some destroyed businesses were yet to benefit from the Reconstruction Fund. The fund is an intervention aimed at supporting all those who were affected during the civil unrest in June last year.
“We’ve heard reports of some shops going out of businesses for good as a result of the damage,” said the analyst.
Meanwhile, two days ago, this publication reported that the year-on-year (Y-Y) seasonally adjusted 2021 quarter four shows an increase of 2.1 per cent compared to a growth of 3.2 per cent as compared to the same period the previous year. The Y-Y growth measures the rate of change of corresponding quarters in subsequent years.
The quarter-to-quarter (Q-Q) seasonally adjusted growth rate which measures the change from subsequent quarters shows a decline of -0.3 per cent in 2021 quarter four, following an increase of 0.1 per cent in 2021 quarter three.
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