South Africa, Africa’s second-largest economy, contracted by 51 percent in the second quarter of 2020 following a drop in economic activities due to COVID-19 lockdown.

“South Africa’s economy contracted by 51 percent in Q2 2020” compared with the same period of 2019, Statistics South Africa said in a statement.

According to the SA National Statistics agency, South Africa’s economy that was already in recession before the COVID-19 outbreak grounded business activities experienced unprecedented contraction after the government imposed a strict lockdown on March 27 to further curb the spread of COVID-19.

The decline was driven mainly by the contraction in construction, manufacturing and mining sectors, were activities declined by about 70 percent.

Also, the finance, real estate and business services industry contracted by a combined 28.9 percent and accounted for -5.4 percentage in economic growth. Just like the transport, storage and communication industry plunged by 67.9 percent.

The second-quarter contraction “dwarfs the annualised slowdown of 6.1 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis,” the statisticians said.

South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product contracted by 17.1 percent year-on-year in the quarter under review. The fourth consecutive contraction.