Mining production growth disappointed in December, plunging to 0.1% from November’s 6.5% and October’s 5.3%.
This was a far bigger slowdown than anticipated by economists.
Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan expected mining to moderate to 5.7% while macroeconomics website Trading Economics projected mining output to ease to 3.4%.
Mining appears likely to drag down the fourth quarter’s GDP growth figures, which use quarter-on-quarter seasonably adjusted figures.
Statistics SA reported on Thursday that the three-month seasonably adjusted change for mining was negative 1.7%, and the month-on-month seasonably adjusted change was negative 3.1%.
The mining industry’s best-performing sector was iron ore, which grew 15.9% in December from the same month in 2016.
Gold production declined 12.4% and coal 5.5%.
The mining industry’s total sales in current prices came to R41.2bn in December, taking the total for 2017 to R460bn.
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