19 November 2015                                              Embargoed until 9:30, 19 November 2015

PRESS STATEMENT 

Gross domestic product (GDP) 

Statistical release for third quarter (2015) GDP

Statistics South Africa will publish third quarter (2015) GDP on Tuesday, 24 November 2015. Historically the November publication has contained regional GDP estimates, annual revisions and detailed GDP components.

However, the third quarter (2015) GDP publication will not include the regional GDP estimates, annual revisions and detailed GDP components. In 2016 responsibility for publishing expenditure on GDP will shift from the South African Reserve Bank to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). An important change in timing and format will see GDP (by production) and expenditure on GDP published simultaneously in a single statistical release. Stats SA’s new responsibilities regarding expenditure on GDP have several implications for the compilation of the supply and use tables, a consequence of which is a new timetable for regional (provincial) estimates of GDP, annual revisions, and detailed GDP components.

Stats SA compiles provincial estimates of GDP annually. In the past these results have been published in November of each year at the same time as the estimate of third quarter GDP. Provincial GDP estimates for 2013 were published on 25 November 2014. With effect from the 2014 provincial GDP estimates, the timing of their publication will change from November to March of the following year. Thus provincial GDP estimates for 2014 will be published in March 2016 (instead of November 2015).

Similarly, the annual GDP revisions that Stats SA has historically published in November of each year will be published in March of the following year instead. Thus the basis for the 2014 GDP estimate to be published on 24 November 2015 continues to be the sum of the four quarters of 2014, and the independent annual estimate for 2014 will be published in March 2016. The same change in timing applies to the detailed breakdown of annual GDP that was historically published in November.

Further information on the new GDP statistical publication will be announced on 24 November 2015 and in 2016.

For technical enquiries contact:

Michael Manamela, Executive Manager: National Accounts, (012) 310 8520 or 082 888 2205.

For media enquiries contact:

Lesedi Dibakwane,Manager Media Relations:(012) 310 8578 or 082 805 7088.