Agriculture was a beacon of light in 2025, with the sector growing more than 17% compared to 2024.
- The SA economy grew at the strongest rate in three years, but growth was still weaker than expected.
- In 2025, GDP grew by 1.1%, with agriculture expanding by 17%.
- But the construction (-4.4%) and manufacturing (-1.2%) sectors shrank last year.
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South Africa’s economy grew by 1.1% in 2025, marking the first in three years in which growth exceeded 1%.
However, the growth is less than the Reserve Bank’s prediction of 1.3% and National Treasury’s forecast of 1.4%.
Annual economic growth.
According to Statistics SA, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.4% on a quarterly basis in the final quarter of 2025, marking the fifth consecutive quarterly expansion.
Third-quarter growth was revised downwards to 0.3%, from the previous estimate of 0.5%. Despite overall growth, the sector-by-sector picture looks less rosy, with half of the 10 sectors shrinking in the fourth quarter compared to the third. The highest growth, of 1.4%, came from financial services, followed by trade (0.9%). Agriculture, government services, and personal services all grew by 0.4%.
Quarter-on-quarter growth.
The worst quarterly performance was for utilities (electricity and water) at -2.2%, followed by construction (-1.3%), mining, and manufacturing (both -0.6%), and transport (-0.3%).
Agriculture was a beacon of light in 2025, with the sector growing more than 17% compared to 2024.
But three sectors shrank last year: construction (-4.4%), utilities (-4.3%) and manufacturing (-1.2%).
Agriculture was the top performing sector in 2025, following being the worst performer in 2024.
The nominal value of the GDP rose to just more than R2 trillion for the first time.
Expenditure on the GDP grew 1.4% for the entire 2025, and 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, also marking the fifth consecutive quarterly growth.
Exports contracted by 0.6% but imports grew 0.5%
Household consumption increased by 1.2% from the third to the fourth quarter. This was the seventh consecutive quarterly growth number. There was a notable increase of 3% in spending on durable goods, and of 2% on semi-durable goods.
Gross fixed capital formation grew by 1.3%, following the 1.4% in the previous quarter, which in turn had followed three quarterly contractions. Fixed capital formation – spending on buildings, machinery and vehicles, indicating an expansion of production capacity – is an important indicator of business sentiment and the basis for long-term growth.
Consumer spending on a quarterly basis.
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