SOUTH African mining production growth fell to only 0.1% in December, less than economists expected, from growth of 6.5% in November and October’s 5.3%, said BusinessLive.
Cited by BusinessLive, Investec economist, Kamilla Kaplan, said she expected mining production growth to moderate to 5.7% while macroeconomics website Trading Economics projected mining output to ease to 3.4%. Mining appears likely to drag down the fourth quarter’s GDP growth figures, which use quarter-on-quarter seasonably adjusted figures.
Statistics SA reported on Thursday that the three-month seasonably adjusted change for mining was negative 1.7%, and the month-on-month seasonably adjusted change was negative 3.1%, said BusinessLive. The mining industry’s best-performing sector was iron ore, which grew 15.9% in December from the same month in 2016. Gold production declined 12.4% and coal 5.5%.
The mining industry’s total sales in current prices came to R41.2bn in December, taking the total for 2017 to R460bn.
