For South Africa, decline in farming and mining output caused it economy to reduce by 0.2 percent.
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South Africa regained the position after two years of coming in behind Africa’s biggest oil producer.
“So far so good it signifies faith that global investors have in the Reserve Bank”, she said.
The growth of the South African economy was premised on the rand having gained over 16% against the dollar since the start of 2016.
South Africa’s economy is now at $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate with the dollar, while Nigeria’s GDP is at $296 billion, based on gross domestic product of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund.
Both nations face the risk of a recession after contracting in the first quarter of the year.
On Thursday 11th August 2016, online news was agog with reports of South Africa’s rand hitting a fresh 10-month high against the dollar, with emerging markets continuing to gain against the United States currency, especially in the wake of the “Brexit fallout”.
StatsSA also published data showing that mining production fell 2.5%, a smaller number than the 4% contraction forecast by a Reuters poll of economists.
Recalled that Nigeria on April 6, 2014 became Africa’s biggest economy after the government announced a long-overdue rebasing of the country’s gross domestic product.
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The rand increased by 1 percent to 13.2805 per dollar at 4:03 pm in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The naira dropped 0.4 percent to 321.50 per dollar, heading for a record low on a closing basis.
