South Africa’s recession deepens in first quarter as mining plummets

 South Africa’s recession deepened in the first quarter of 2020, with official data on Tuesday showing that gross domestic product contracted 2% from the previous three months, led by declines in mining and manufacturing. The economy was already frail before the coronavirus pandemic hit South Africa in March, with January-March being the third consecutive quarter of contraction and following a 1.4% decline in GDP in October-December.