“According to the latest preliminary indicators, the annual real estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2015 increased by 1.3 percent compared with 2014,” said the Statistician General.

The economy grew by 1.3% in 2015, down from 1.5% in 2014 and 2.2% in 2013.

The nominal GDP is estimated at R3 991 billion for 2015 – R194 billion more than 2014.

The main contributors to the increase in economic activity in 2015 were finance, real estate and business services, the mining and quarrying and the wholesale, retail and motor trade; catering and accommodation industry.

Lehohla said finance expanded by R44 billion, government expanded by R40 billion, trade expanded by R30 billion, transport expanded by R14 billion.

A negative contribution was recorded by the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry. Agriculture decreased by R1 billion to R83 billion.

Fourth quarter GDP

This follows the announcement that the seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the fourth quarter of 2015 increased by an annualised rate of 0.6 percent, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent during the third quarter of 2015.

The largest contributions to the quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.6 percent include finance, real estate and business services and the wholesale, retail and motor trade; catering and accommodation industry each contributed 0.4 of a percentage point based on growth of 1.9 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.

General government services contributed 0.2 of a percentage point based on growth of 1.0 percent.

StatsSA said the economic activity in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry reflected negative growth of 14.0 percent due to decreases in the production of field crops and forestry.

“Economic activity in the manufacturing industry reflected negative growth of 2.6 percent due to decreases in the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery division, the wood and wood products, paper, publishing and printing division, and the motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment division," it said.