On Tuesday Statistics SA released the latest data on South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP).
This set of data reported on economic output for the fourth quarter of 2004, as well as the preliminary indications for the whole year, which are based on the sum of the four quarters.
GDP is a particularly important output of a country's national accounts, as it is the key indicator of change in economic growth.
GDP estimates the value of goods and services produced in a specific period and is used to measure the performance of the economy as a whole, as well as different industries in the economy.
The first important statistic in the latest GDP estimates is for the year as a whole. In 2004 GDP increased by 3.7 percent, compared with an increase of 2.8 percent in 2003.
This reflects real economic growth for the year, as compared with growth in the previous year.
The next important statistic relates to economic growth for the last three months of 2004 (the fourth reporting quarter), compared with the previous quarter.
In this respect, real quarterly GDP increased by an annualised rate of 4 percent in the fourth quarter following an annualised increase of 5.7 percent in the third quarter of 2004.
The economic growth rate for the first quarter of 2004 was 3.8 percent, and 4.4 percent for the second.
Economic growth, however, does not occur smoothly and equally throughout the whole economy, and it is important to know the sectors in which change is taking place.
Industry as a whole is broken down into a number of main sectors, following the International Standard Industrial Classification as adapted for South African circumstances.
The increase of 3.7 percent for 2004 was driven mainly by growth in wholesale trade, retail trade, hotels and restaurants (0.9 percentage points), finance, real estate and business services (0.7 percentage points), transport, storage and communication (0.5 percentage points) and manufacturing (0.4 percentage points).
The 4 percent increase in GDP for the fourth quarter of 2004 was mainly due to increases in the real value added by finance, real estate and business services (1.1 percentage points), wholesale trade, retail trade, hotels and restaurants (1 percentage point), transport and communication (0.7 percentage points) and manufacturing (0.4 percentage points).
The impact on GDP of growth in one industry is directly dependent on the size of that industry when compared with the other industrial sectors.
The relative size of each industry in 2004 is the share of its real value added of the GDP for 2003.
Similarly, the relative size of taxes less subsidies on products is the share of its value of the GDP for 2003.
This complex formulation reveals that the percentage of real value of GDP added by each industrial sector for 2004, when compared with 2003, is as shown in the table above.
The latest GDP data were released earlier than usual, so that they would be available at the time of the budget speech of finance minister Trevor Manuel, to be presented in parliament next week. GDP data for 2004 were published just six weeks after the year-end as a way of both informing and encouraging the debate that invariably follows the annual budget speech.
Pali Lehohla is South Africa's statistician-general and head of Statistics SA. For more information on Stats SA and its statistical outputs, including details of the latest GDP release, visit www.statssa.gov.