CAPE TOWN - The latest provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures from Stats SA, which are a year behind the national figures has reflected the Western Cape economic growth as 0.8 % for 2018.
This despite the province experiencing one of the worst droughts in recent history, provincial economic opportunities MEC, David Maynier said.
“This strong rallying of our provincial economy is very positive news, as the expectation was that the Western Cape would only grow by about 0.2 percent in 2018,” he said.
Maynier said that since 2018 there were signs of recovery and growth and the expectation was that 2019 would show even higher growth results, this despite the announcement of South Africa entering into a recession.
The positive growth rate in the province shows that this is a great place to invest and the provincial government will do everything to support businesses despite the challenging environment,” he said.
As outlined in the Provincial Review & Economic Outlook 2019 and the Municipal Review & Economic Outlook 2019, this growth is driven by private services that include wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation, transport, storage and communication, among others.
“We also expect agriculture and agro-processing to be the fastest growing sectors as they recover from the contraction caused by the drought in the Western Cape.
"The Western Cape still maintains the lowest unemployment rate in the country, and we created 24,000 new jobs in the last quarter in the Western Cape,” Maynier said.
“That is why we have launched an investment promotion campaign; that is why we are setting up an ease of doing business unit to work on constraints to economic growth in the province; and that is why we are working hard to mitigate the impact of load shedding in the Western Cape,” he said.