South Africa’s real quarterly GDP increased in the fourth quarter of 2009, meaning the country is officially out of recession according to figures published by Statistics South Africa today.

“The seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the fourth quarter of 2009 increased by an annualised rate of 3.2 percent compared with the third quarter of 2009. The corresponding real annualised economic growth rates for the first three quarters of 2009 decreased by 7.4 percent, 2.8 percent and increased by 0.9 percent respectively,” the government bureau, Stats SA said in its publication.

The agency said the main contributors to the increase in economic activity for the fourth quarter of 2009 were the manufacturing industry, which contributed 1.5 percentage points, the general government services, contributing 1.0 percentage point, the mining and quarrying industry, the transport, storage and communication industry, finance, real estate and business services and personal services, each contributing 0.2 of a percentage point as well as the construction industry which contributed 0.1 of a percentage point.

“Negative contributions by other industries included the wholesale, retail, motor trade and accommodation (contributing -0.1 of a percentage point) and the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry (contributing -0.2 of a percentage point),” Stats SA said in the statement.

Stats SA also said the unadjusted GDP at market prices recorded decreases of 0.7 percent, revised from a decrease of 0.8 percent; 2.7 percent revised from a decrease of 2.6 percent; 2.2 percent, revised from a decrease of 2.1 percent, and; 1.4 percent during the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2009 compared with the four quarters of 2008 respectively.

It also stated that the real annual GDP decreased by 1.8 percent in 2009.

“First preliminary annual estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) are derived as the sum of the GDP for the four quarters of the specific year. These estimates indicate that the real annual GDP at market prices for 2009, decreased by 1.8 percent compared with 2008 when the real annual economic growth rate was 3.7 percent,” said Stats SA.

The main contributors to the decrease in economic activity in 2009, the agency said, were the manufacturing industry (contributing -1.8 percentage points), the mining and quarrying industry (contributing -0.4 of a percentage point), the wholesale, retail, motor trade and accommodation industry (contributing -0.3 of a percentage point) and the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry (contributing -0.1 of a percentage point).

Positive contributions by other industries mentioned by Stats SA included the general government services (0.5 of a percentage point), finance, real estate and business services (0.3 of a percentage point), the construction industry (0.2 of a percentage point) and personal services (0.1 of a percentage point).