The South African economy grew by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2021.

This translates into an annualised growth rate of 4.6%.

Moreover, this follows a revised 1,4% rise in the real gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) made the announcement on Tuesday.

The South African #economy grew by 1.1% in Q1:2021, translating into an annualized growth rate of 4.6%.

“Despite this being the third consecutive quarter of positive growth, the South African economy is 2,7% smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2020.”

This comes exactly a week after StatsSA released the country’s unemployment rate – which increased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

It emerged that this is increase since the start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.

Moreover, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago announced that the repo rate would remain unchanged at 3.2% in May.

He warned that the country’s slow progress on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccination poses a risk to economic growth and recovery.

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen the country’s economy decimated owing to business closures and job losses.