This week, Statistics SA releases key information, which will assist MPs and policy makers, economists and financiers, entrepreneurs and investors, and citizens exercise their democratic rights to information to assess progress and change in society.
In the first key indicator, released on Tuesday, Stats SA reported that the seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices for the first quarter of 2004, compared with the fourth quarter of 2003, increased by an annualised rate of 3.1 percent.
The corresponding increases for the respective quarters of 2003 were 0.9 percent, 0.5 percent, 1.1 percent and 1.3 percent, yielding an annual growth rate of 1.9 percent in real GDP at market prices for 2003.
The main contributors to the increase in economic activity for the first quarter of 2004 were the finance, real estate and business services industry sectors (0.7 percentage point); the transport and communication industry (0.6 percentage point); the manufacturing industry (0.5 percentage point) and the wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants industry (0.4 percentage point).
Some commentators had predicted that Stats SA's new series of monthly manufacturing statistics, published last week, would impact on the GDP.
This was because the improved and expanded coverage of the manufacturing sector through the new business register indicated that the level of manufacturing sales for 2003 was approximately 17 percent higher than had been reflected in the old series.
However, these improvements in the measurement of the economy will not affect the growth rates of GDP in the short run, and the higher level of economic activity in the manufacturing industry is not incorporated in the current estimates of national accounts.
The rebasing and benchmarking of national accounts statistics, which will be published in November, will provide the opportunity to incorporate the changes in the levels of the recently published economic statistics.
The second key economic indicator, which was released yesterday, reported on trends in consumer inflation: The official inflation rate, also known as headline inflation (the percentage change in the consumer price index for metropolitan areas at April 2004 compared with that at April 2003) is 0.2 percent.
2 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 0.4 percent at March this year.
The annual percentage change in the CPIX for metropolitan and other urban areas, which is the CPI excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds, and is used as the measurement for inflation targets, is 4.4 percent as at April this year. This rate is the same as the corresponding annual rate at March.
The annual rate of increase in food prices is 2.7 percent as at April, 0.4 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 3.1 percent at March 2004.
Today, Stats SA reports on producer price inflation (PPI). The CPI and PPI measure change in the rate of inflation at different points in the total cycle of production, distribution and sale of goods and services.
While the CPI is an index charting changes in the prices paid by consumers, the PPI measures changes in the production price of locally produced commodities (regardless of whether these are sold locally or exported) as well as for imported commodities.
Later today, Stats SA will release the results of its second general household survey (GHS), which was conducted in July last year. This survey collects information on subjects such as education, health, the labour market, births, access to services and facilities, the environment and quality of life. The report aims specifically at providing national and, where possible, provincial indicators on living conditions such as access to services and facilities, education and health. It also draws comparisons between the 2002 and 2003 data gathered.
The GHS reports on topics such as the estimated population by province, the proportion of people in each population group with medical aid cover, and labour market patterns, according to both the official and expanded definitions of unemployment.
One of the purposes of the GHS is to measure development indicators in the country by looking at the type of dwellings in which households live, and access to infrastructure such as piped water, electricity, hygienic toilet facilities, refuse removal and telephones, as well as the the impact and performance of various government programmes and projects.