In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank predicts South Africa’s growth will rebound to 3.3 percent in 2021 — 0.7 percentage point below previous forecasts — before softening to a near potential pace of 1.7 percent in 2022.

“With economic activity in South Africa already on a weak footing before the pandemic hit, output is expected to have fallen 7.8 percent last year,” said the report. “The country suffered the most severe COVID-19 outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa, which prompted strict lockdown measures and brought the economy to a standstill.”

The pandemic caused an estimated 6.1 percent fall in per capita income last year and is expected to lead to a further 0.2 percent decline in 2021, it said.

The decline in per capita income is expected to set average living standards back by a decade or more in a quarter of Sub-Saharan African economies, “with even more severe setbacks in South Africa,” said the report.