South Africa has a modern, well diversified economy supported by an efficient, highly developed infrastructure. Although South Africa's economy is relatively small (less than 0.5% of world GDP) it is by far the largest economy in Africa, generating nearly a quarter of the continental GDP. In absolute terms in 2002, it had a volume of R998.8 bn.
 
In recent years the South African economy has presented sound economic fundamentals (stable growth of 2-3% & moderate inflation now down to some 6%).  The government adheres to the principles of fiscal discipline and follows a monetary policy with a clearly-defined inflation target.
Budget: The national government’s budget deficit has been reduced from 9% in 1994 to 1.1% in 2002, reducing the the national debt from 48% of GDP (1997/98) to 41.4% (end of Dec. 2002).

Economic Activities
Over the past two decades,  the South African economy has been transformed from an economy that was strongly dependent on the primary sector (agriculture, mining), to one with extensive secondary (processing industry) and tertiary (services) sectors.  Whereas the primary sector contributed more than 20% of GDP in the 1980s, this had fallen to about 11,8% by 2002.