South Africa's economy, the most developed on the African continent, halted growth for six consecutive months and fell 0.7% in the second quarter of this year, the country's official statistics office (Stats SA) said today..

The devastating floods in April in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal and the power cuts caused by the serious crisis in the electricity system "contributed to the fall, weakening the already fragile national economy, which had just returned to pre-pandemic levels," explained Stats SA in a statement quoted by Spanish news agency Efe and Lusa.

According to the data presenting the aggregate growth between April and June, there were seven economic sectors that experienced a drop, starting with agriculture and fisheries, with a drop of 7.7% compared to the level of activity recorded in the same quarter, and craft production, with a drop of 5.9%.

In contrast, personal services, up slightly by 0.1%, finance and real estate (2.4%), and transportation and communications, up 2.4%, saw expansions in the level of output.

The government led by Cyril Ramaphosa foresees GDP growth of 2.1% this year, continuing the expansion trend of last year, but faces the consequences of the pandemic, which has worsened the recession, unemployment of more than a third of the population, and a serious crisis in the energy system, which requires widespread and frequent cuts.