JOHANNESBURG, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Though South Africa's economy grew by 1.1 percent in 2025, an economist warned Tuesday that the pace of expansion remains "slow and uneven" amid persistent structural challenges.
According to the latest data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the country's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of economic growth.
Raymond Parsons, an economist at the North-West University Business School, said the latest data confirm that South Africa has been experiencing a slow and uneven economic recovery over the past year.
Data from Stats SA show that household final consumption expenditure increased by about 3.6 percent in 2025, contributing roughly 2.4 percentage points to overall GDP growth.
Parsons noted that household consumption spending continued to carry much of the burden in sustaining economic activity, while the improvement in fixed capital formation, including infrastructure investment, was encouraging for long-term growth prospects.
However, he cautioned that the 1.1 percent expansion remains disappointing when compared with the 1.6 percent growth forecast for 2026 in the recent national budget. "The Budget revenue projections also depend on the anticipated economic growth rate being realized," he said.
Stats SA also reported that nominal GDP at market prices reached about 7.6 trillion rand (about 469 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, roughly 289 billion rand higher than in 2024, reflecting expansion across several major industries, including finance, trade, personal services, and mining.
Despite these improvements, Parsons said that South Africa is still struggling to generate the momentum needed to expand the economy faster and meet socioeconomic expectations.
Although the macroeconomic environment has improved, the country still faces the challenge of making faster progress toward the government's target of reaching 3.5 percent growth by 2030.
He also warned that the domestic outlook remains vulnerable to global uncertainty, including potential economic fallout from geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
In a worst-case scenario, Parsons said a prolonged conflict could reduce South Africa's growth by about 0.1 percentage points in 2026, while also adding to inflationary pressures.
"The global and South African economies have entered a period of heightened uncertainty," he said, adding that the situation underscores the need for accelerated structural reforms to strengthen economic resilience and support sustained, job-creating growth. ■