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Johannesburg - The South African economy is recovering, although at a very slow pace, according to the BankservAfrica Economic Transaction Index (Beti) released on Monday.
"Whilst the economy is not treading water, but actually moving ahead, the pace does seem pedestrian," said Brad Gillis, CEO regulated products at BankservAfrica, in a statement.
The average year-on-year increase in the smoothed weighted Beti over the last seven years is 4.3%.
The current growth rate stands at 3.7%, whilst the last five Betis, which are released monthly, came in below the average of 4.3%.
"This indicates that the economy certainly has some underlying growth left, as the Beti remains positive," said Mike Schüssler, chief economist with economists.co.za.
"However, the smoothed weighted Beti indicates that below average growth will probably remain with us for the first half of 2012."
Schüssler said the South African economy was on "a recovery rather than boom path".
The Beti is a collaboration between BankservAfrica and Schüssler.
It draws on data from BankservAfrica which records transactions between banks, either electronically or paper-based cheques. The indicator tracks close to 80 percent of all economic transactions, besides debit and credit cards and cash.
Over the last year the Beti represented 844 million transactions with a value of over R6.3 trillion.
