Latest data released by Statistics South Africa shows that Gauteng is still be far the biggest single contributor to the South African economy.
In 2023 Gauteng produced 33.2% of South Africa’s GDP, with KwaZulu-Natal second, with 16.2%, and the Western Cape third, with 14%.
Mpumalanga was fourth, with a contribution of 7.8%, followed by the Eastern Cape (7.7%), Limpopo (7.6%), North West (6.4%), Free State (4.9%), and the Northern Cape (2.3%).
There has been no significant change over the past decade with the overall provincial contributions to South Africa’s total GDP in 2013 remaining broadly the same in 2023.
Overall economic growth in the provinces remained weak, like in South Africa overall. Only KwaZulu-Natal had an annual economic growth rate of over 1% in 2023, with the province’s economy expanding by 1.1% in 2023. This was followed by the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, which both saw economic expansion of 0.8%.
The weakest provincial economic growth rate in 2023 was the Free State, which grew by only 0.1%.
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