(Bloomberg) -South Africa's economy contracted the most in a century in 2020 as restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic ravaged output and disrupted trade. Gross domestic product shrank 7%, compared with a 0.2% expansion in 2019, according to a report released by Statistics South Africa Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. That's the biggest decline since 1920, when output dropped by 11.9% during the two-year post-World War I recession, central bank data shows.
GDP expanded an annualized 6.3% in the three months through December from the previous quarter, following a revised 67.3% increase in the three months through September. The median estimate of 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a 5.6% increase. GDP contracted 4.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, which means output is still down from 2019.
