Indeed, domestic economic activity had already started to slow on account of tighter monetary policy applied between 2006 and 2008, resulting in slowing domestic demand. However, the real impact of the decline in global growth started to be felt in the fourth quarter of 2008, when for the first time in a decade, the domestic economy contracted.
In the first quarter of 2009, the domestic economy officially entered into a recession and a third consecutive quarter of negative growth was recorded in the second quarter of this year. South Africa was somewhat lagging the rest of the world.