SA in recession?

clipped from www.businessday.co.za ECONOMIC growth may have ground to a halt or even contracted in the third quarter of this year, marking the first fall in output for SA since 1998. The prognosis for next year is even more grim, as fallout from the worst global financial crisis in 80 years takes its toll on local exports and investments. At this stage, very few are predicting a recession for SA, despite the fact that three of its main trade partners — Europe, the US and UK — appear to be there already. Growth over this year is still likely to amount to more than 3% — a respectable outcome, albeit below the average pace of 5% seen over each of the past four years.