OPINION | Everything you want to know about GDP data explained

The year 2020 will certainly go down as one of the wildest years in history.

In the second quarter (2Q) of 2020, many countries went into lockdown. A while later, we saw absurd GDP figures reported for that quarter – in the US, GDP was down 32.9% (revised to -31.7%), and South Africa's GDP dropped by a mindblowing 51%.

Did South Africa's economy really lose more than half its value in one quarter? The short answer is no. Nowhere close. In fact, the economy fell  "only" 16.4% in South Africa and 7% in the States.