Assignment 3: ECS2603
A comparison of the economic growth performance of the South African economy for
2020 with 2019
By
Your Initials and surname
Student Number
Introduction
Due to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa was put on hard lockdown in
March 2020. This meant that business operations in all sectors came to an abrupt stop and
only the ones characterised as the ones providing “essential” services continued to operate.
This adversely impacted the economy and the purpose of this report is to assess the extent to
which economic growth was hindered by covid 19 in the year 2020 compared to the year
2019.
The first section analyses
Quarter on same quarter of the previous year
Table 1: GDP at quarterly prices, 2019 - 2020
Quarter GDP at quarterly GDP at quarterly prices Quarterly economic
prices for 2019 for 2020 growth rate
1 761 633 764 788 1.67%
2 788 307 648 135 -54,30%
3 793 431 744 590 -22.44%
4 805 965 772 643 -15,54%
Source: South African Reserve Bank. Online statistical query KBP 6006C.
Formula for calculating quarterly economic growth rate between quarter 1 of 2019 and
quarter one of 2020:
4 4
�� 764788
− 1 ∗ 100 = − 1 ∗ 100 = 1.67%
��−1 761633
A comparison of the economic growth performance of the South African economy for
2020 with 2019
By
Your Initials and surname
Student Number
Introduction
Due to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa was put on hard lockdown in
March 2020. This meant that business operations in all sectors came to an abrupt stop and
only the ones characterised as the ones providing “essential” services continued to operate.
This adversely impacted the economy and the purpose of this report is to assess the extent to
which economic growth was hindered by covid 19 in the year 2020 compared to the year
2019.
The first section analyses
Quarter on same quarter of the previous year
Table 1: GDP at quarterly prices, 2019 - 2020
Quarter GDP at quarterly GDP at quarterly prices Quarterly economic
prices for 2019 for 2020 growth rate
1 761 633 764 788 1.67%
2 788 307 648 135 -54,30%
3 793 431 744 590 -22.44%
4 805 965 772 643 -15,54%
Source: South African Reserve Bank. Online statistical query KBP 6006C.
Formula for calculating quarterly economic growth rate between quarter 1 of 2019 and
quarter one of 2020:
4 4
�� 764788
− 1 ∗ 100 = − 1 ∗ 100 = 1.67%
��−1 761633
