Inflation pressures in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are expected to subside somewhat on account of sustained policy discipline and improved food-supply conditions in most parts of the subcontinent, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) says in its latest quarterly bulletin.
The central bank adds that economic activity in South Africa picked up further in the second quarter of 2004, with the real gross domestic product expanding for the 23rd consecutive quarter — the longest period of uninterrupted quarter-to-quarter growth since quarterly data became available in 1960.
“Supported by lower interest rates, a moderately higher budget deficit and favourable international terms of trade, the annualised pace of growth accelerated to 4% in the second quarter of 2004 from an upwardly revised 3,5% in the first quarter.
“The growth trajectory has steepened noticeably since the second quarter of 2003, with each quarter’s growth rate being higher than the one preceding it,” the report states.
The improvement in the economic growth rate in the second quarter of 2004 was broadly based, it says.
Growth in the primary sector accelerated on account of an improvement in agricultural output, while higher growth in production in the secondary sector was led by manufacturing.
“In the tertiary sector, growth was maintained at a brisk pace, with real output originating in the transport and communication subsector rising most noticeably. As in the first quarter, all sectors and subsectors registered increases in real output in the second quarter of 2004.” — I-Net Bridge