SA’s GDP would have grown 1.6% without mine strike

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa's economy would have grown 1.6 percent in the first quarter of this year if the direct and indirect effects of a crippling five-month strike in the platinum sector are discounted, the central bank said on Wednesday.

"Annualised growth in real gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2014 could have been closer to 1.6 percent had industrial action not taken place, in contrast to the contraction of 0.6 percent which materialised," it said in its latest quarterly assessment on the economy.