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.
• For more financial news, visit News24 Business.

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%.

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%.

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%).

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.

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