{"id":5767,"date":"2021-03-06T11:38:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T11:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=5767"},"modified":"2021-03-06T10:07:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T10:07:45","slug":"upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report.<\/p>\n

The data will come hot on the heels of the national budget, tabled just last week (February 24) by finance minister, Tito Mboweni. In his speech, the minister upwardly revised South Africa\u2019s growth prospects, citing improved global conditions and the easing of lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n

He now expects the domestic economy to have contracted by -7.2% for 2020, a slight improvement from the -7.8% contraction that he had projected in October 2020, when tabling the medium-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).<\/p>\n

While the projection of -7.2% looks relatively better, when compared to the 2019 growth figure of 0.2%.<\/p>\n

However, it has become evident that to a certain degree, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic disrupted economic activity.<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, STANLIB\u2019s Chief Economist, Kevin Lings expected 2020 economic growth to have outperformed 2019, as the year had ended in recession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe missed out on 8% economic growth due to Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is massive. We had not grown before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when the pandemic hit, it was a huge step backwards,\u201d Lings told BRO.<\/p>\n

For Argon Asset Management\u2019s economist, Dr Thabi Leoka the fourth quarter results are likely to reflect a little bit of improvement from the first three quarters.<\/p>\n

She said the reason for this was because there was some economic activity in the first quarter but the lockdown, which started in March 2020, probably undermined this.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecember is usually the busiest period of the year and for many retailers and many tourism-related companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lockdown came at a time that was critical for economic growth,\u201d Leoka said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, head of Investment Strategy at Absa Global Investment Solutions, Ricardo Smith said he expected the GDP announcement to show a moderately negative print even though there was \u201cstrong\u201d recovery in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fourth quarter expectation is largely for a moderate contraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the demand-side data, retail trade sales were down, wholesale trades were weak and nominal motor trade was down and electricity demand was also weaker in December than it usually is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had rising corporate liquidations. On the production side, mining was down.\u201d<\/p>\n

What needs to be done?<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Leoka for the economy to grow, there needs to be investments and the high unemployment rate needs to be curbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot have 40% of the working population that is unemployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need everyone to produce something, to be active in the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have sustainable growth, we need to increase investment that will revive the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money needed to flow into infrastructure development in order for employment to be created and for the former to lead to sustainable growth, Leoka said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lings said the government needed to fast track the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine for businesses to gain confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we recover fully? Yes, if the vaccine is rolled out. Avoiding load shedding can also help. We can reach 3 to 4% GDP growth this year,” he said.<\/p>\n

Smith said regarding the Covid-19 perspective, it was comforting to see that the numbers were down.<\/p>\n

Curbing the spread of viruses should be number one on the agenda, he contended.<\/p>\n

The future?<\/b><\/p>\n

Economic recovery, according to Lings, is a two-year process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is about getting things going.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening up the economy at a low base, avoid mistakes, avoid load shedding and strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He projected that the country would, in 2022, be back to normal when companies were confident about the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have a good story. In the fourth quarter, we did OK with some growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leoka, however, said she was not optimistic about the future of the economy as there was a lot that still needed to be done.<\/p>\n

She cautioned that the problem with South Africa was the implementation of ideas and \u201cvague\u201d timeline deliverables.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what makes me negative about the economy. Once we start seeing implementation, that is when my sentiments will change,” she said.<\/p>\n

Smith said he hoped that the economy would get out of the rut. \u201cThe key is to get out of the Covid-19 environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other key is whether the government can implement all the plans that it set out to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report. The data will come hot on the heels of the national budget, tabled just last week (February 24) by finance minister, Tito Mboweni. In his speech, the minister upwardly revised South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nUpcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19 - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\"},\"wordCount\":710,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\",\"name\":\"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19 - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":404,\"caption\":\"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19 - South Africa","description":"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19","og_description":"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19","datePublished":"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19"},"wordCount":710,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","homepage-english"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19","name":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19 - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-06T11:38:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Statistics South Africa will on Tuesday next week release the fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year (2020) Gross Domestic Pr ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-60435452b4f22.jpg","width":720,"height":404,"caption":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/upcoming-2020-gdp-data-to-show-true-devastation-of-covid-19#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Upcoming 2020 GDP data to show true devastation of Covid-19"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}