In Business Report by Evan Pickworth:

The South African Reserve Bank quarterly bulletin data showed that while household debt was at a new record high of 76.5% in the second quarter, a more soothing figure was that gross domestic expenditure slowed to 1% in the second quarter from 5.75% previously.

Added to this was that household consumption expenditure slowed to 5.5% from 7.5% in the first quarter.

The slower gross domestic expenditure was seen mainly due to a slower growth in real domestic final demand and a further slowdown in the pace of inventory accumulation.

The slowdown in real final consumption expenditure by households was seen as being mainly due to a contraction in real expenditure on durable goods, which declined at an annualised rate of 10%. In addition growth in household spending on non-durable goods also slackened.

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