GDP FALLS 1.9% IN 2020

MBABANE – It is official - the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) decline for 2020 has been recorded at -1.9 per cent.

This is when compared to a revised growth of 2.6 per cent realised in 2019. After disruptions caused by the advent of COVID-19, Eswatini’s economy was initially estimated to have contracted by at least 3.2 per cent in the past year. The ministry of economic planning and development has since released the annual GDP figures for 2020. The preliminary figures suggest a 1.9 per cent fall. According to the report, GDP for the year 2020 stands at E65.432 billion. The observed decline is mainly contributed by the secondary sector which declined by -9.8 per cent and the primary sector by -5.1 per cent. Manufacturing contributes the largest share to GDP of 26.6 per cent. It is followed by wholesale and retail trade with 14.4 per cent as well as public administration and defence with 10.2 per cent. The least contributing industries are mining and quarrying; arts, entertainment and recreation with 0.2 and 0.1, respectively.

The fall is the biggest in a 10-year period. Growth has been below three per cent since 2014. A notable and significant was last celebrated in 2012.  The figures were at 5.4 per cent. While not all of Eswatini’s Southern African Customs Union (SACU) counterparts have released their annual GDP reports, it seems the country has suffered the least fall. In 2020, South Africa’s real GDP had decreased by about 6.96 per cent compared to the previous year. Botswana’s economy contracted by an estimated 8.9 per cent in 2020. The Lesotho economy was estimated to have contracted by 5.2 per cent in 2020 from modest growth of 0.6 in 2019.  For Nambia, overall, GDP is expected to have contracted by 7.3 per cent in 2020. Director of Statistics Amos Zwane said the estimates were compiled following the System of  National Accounts which is described as a statistical framework that provides comprehensive, consistent and flexible set of macroeconomic accounts for policymaking, analysis and research purposes. The classification of individual economic activities is based on the International Standard of Industrial Classification.

Moreover, these estimates were compiled using the production approach which is a sum of gross value add (GVA) from the production of goods and services at market prices and the expenditure approach ,which is a summation of the total expenditure of different sectors of the economy. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) publishes the country’s GDP on quarterly and annual basis. GDP measures the monetary value of all final goods and services produced within the country’s borders in a given time period.
It measures the size of the economy and its growth rate over time, and is the most familiar and widely recognised feature of the national accounts.

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