in the third quarter of this year, it was announced on Tuesday.

Alex Smith, an economist at First National Bank (FNB), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstRand, which is South Africa’s third biggest bank, said this growth was driven by trade and hospitality, finance and business services and agriculture sectors.

“Mining also staged an encouraging recovery from a 3.1 percent contraction in the second quarter, to achieve growth of 1.6 percent in the third quarter. On the downside, manufacturing and utilities continued to see output decline,” Smith said.

“The manufacturing weakness was largely due to the strikes in the metals and engineering segment. Meanwhile, strength in agriculture was due to a good crop harvest,” he added.

The recovery in the trade sector was broad based, but it is coming off a low base and is likely driven by the return of striking workers in the platinum industry and the resulting wage gains (following large wage losses during the strike).

The business and finance sector was boosted by strong financial market returns in the third quarter.

“In 2015, the economy is expected to perform slightly better in anticipation of fewer strike days to be lost (2014 saw the longest strike in SA’s history), the introduction of additional power supply from Medupi as well as an improvement in the global economy. FNB forecasts a GDP growth rate of 2.4 percent in 2015,” Smith said.