The country slipped into a technical recession on Tuesday as figures for the second quarter of the year showed there was a contraction of 0.7%.

JOHANNESBURG – Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says that the drop in GDP is largely caused by a decrease in agricultural output but he’s assured South Africans government is working on a plan to move out of the recession.

The country slipped into a technical recession on Tuesday as figures for the second quarter of the year showed there was a contraction of 0.7%.

This is the second drop following a decrease of 2.6% in the first quarter of the year.

Patel says that agriculture dropped by around 29% in the second quarter.

“Because of the weighting of agriculture in the economy that had a very significant impact on crops. But it’s not the only area that we need to be concerned about.”

The minister says the GDP figures underline the importance of taking steps that can boost economic growth.

“The kind of things that we need to do and we need to be with more focused in the light of the data that came out. We’ve got to boost the GPD, as you would have seen with the data, that our investment levels are down.”

(Edited by Leeto M Khoza)