Private sector to blame for recession - Mantashe
7 June 2017
Johannesburg – Negative growth in the private sector is to blame for the country's technical recession, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe has said.
"New sectors in the private sector, the financial sector, retail and trade are negative. All those are not in the hands of government, they are in the hands of the private sector," he told News24 on Tuesday.
Government is making considerable progress in agriculture and mining, he claimed.“Agriculture is doing well because we paid a lot of attention to it. Mining has contributed positively."
On Tuesday, Statistics SA said the country has slipped into a recession after its gross domestic product declined 0.7% during the first quarter of 2017, after contracting by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016, Fin24 reported.