Statistics South Africa’s latest print on quarterly financial statistics for the three months to December shows a steady increase in the total turnover of key sectors such as construction, manufacturing, and mining, all of which aid in driving economic growth.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
Statistics South Africa’s latest print on quarterly financial statistics for the three months to December shows a steady increase in the total turnover of key sectors such as construction, manufacturing, and mining, all of which aid in driving economic growth.
The data, released on Monday morning, revealed that turnover increased in seven industries covered by the survey between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. Key gains were noted in construction (11.4%), trade (6%), manufacturing (5.5%), and mining and quarrying (3.5%)—industries that had been under severe pressure just three quarters previously.
Overall, turnover across all sectors measured for the fourth quarter was R3.62 trillion, an increase of 4.5% compared with the previous three months. Year-on-year, the data showed the same rate of growth against a figure of R3.46 trillion in the three months to December 2023.
Statistics South Africa explained that the survey covers a range of enterprises operating in the formal non-agricultural business sector of the South African economy, excluding financial intermediation, insurance, government and educational institutions.
The data, released on Monday morning, revealed that turnover increased in seven industries covered by the survey between the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
Image: Nicola Mawson
Questionnaires are sent to a sample of 4 928 enterprises and need to be returned to the agency within two weeks of the end of the relevant quarter. Large enterprises comprise the bulk of companies measured, at 51%.
These figures are a key preview of gross domestic product as results of the survey are used to compile estimates of economic growth and are also vital to monitor and develop government policy. These statistics are also used by the private sector in analyses of comparative business and industry performance, the agency has previously explained.
In 2024, gross domestic economic growth came in at just 0.6%. The government and business partnership has targeted growth of 3% for this year and the creation of a million jobs, which Dr Azar Jammine, director and chief economist at Econometrix, believes is not possible.
The South African Reserve Bank expects gross domestic product growth of 1.7% this year.
Interestingly, the numbers show turnover growth of almost 40% between the last quarter of 2019 – the year before the devastation wrecked on lives and economies through COVID-19 – and the end of last year.
Despite this, gross domestic product growth has not returned this sort of gain, having reached 1.6% growth in 2018, 0.3% the following year, before slumping to a massive decline of 6.2% in 2020 when lockdowns to limit the spread of the virus were implemented, according to World Bank data.
Based on these figures, gross domestic growth is lagging formal sector economic gains.
Statistics South Africa’s turnover figures also showed that employment costs across the industries included in the survey declined 4% year-on-year.
Earlier this month, Statistics South Africa’s jobs data indicated that jobs in the formal sector, excluding farming, had declined 0.8% year-on-year as of the December 2024 quarter, although part-time employment increased thanks to gains in trade, construction, and business services.
Investec economist Lara Hodes said, at the time, that the fact that declines were logged in four of the eight industries included in the survey is “indicative of a lacklustre economy, which grew by a modest 0.6% in 2024”.
Among the sectors contributing to job losses were the key sectors of manufacturing, construction and mining, all of which reported higher turnover for the December quarter as detailed in Statistics South Africa’s data released this morning. In fact, the only industry that reported lower turnover for the December quarter was that of Transport, storage and communication, which dropped 1.4%.
Jammine has previously noted that manufacturing had been trending downwards for at least a decade, with production down 15% over that period as the economy deindustrialises.
IOL
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