The Eastern Cape economy grew by 0.6% in 2025, recovering from a contraction in the previous year but still expanding more slowly than the South African economy as a whole.
The latest provincial gross domestic product figures from Statistics SA, released late late week, put the province's real economic growth below the national rate of 0.9%.
The Western Cape recorded the strongest growth among the larger provincial economies, at 1.4%, followed by Gauteng at 1.1%.
The figures form part of Stats SA's revised national accounts, following the rebasing of the country's GDP estimates from a 2015 to a 2022 base year.
Rebasing and benchmarking incorporate more recent and detailed information about economic activity, updating the picture of the size and composition of the economy.
The revisions lifted the estimated size of SA's 2025 economy by 5.3%, from R7,642bn to R8,044bn.
The revised figures put the Eastern Cape's contribution to national GDP at 7.8% in 2025, unchanged from 2024.
They also offer an updated view of the industries making up the provincial economy. At current prices, personal services remained the largest contributor, accounting for 24.4% of provincial GDP in 2025, compared with 24.3% in 2024.
Finance, real estate and business services contributed 16.7%, down from 17.1%, while wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants increased its share slightly to 14.4%, from 14.1%.
Manufacturing accounted for 11.4% of the provincial economy, compared with 11.7% in 2024.
The figures underline the importance of services to the Eastern Cape economy.
Together, personal services, finance and business services, and trade made up more than half of provincial GDP in 2025.
Manufacturing remained a significant contributor, though its share was smaller than that of each of the three leading service groupings.
These percentages show the relative size of industries in the economy, rather than how quickly each industry grew.
They are calculated at current prices and should not be read as real growth rates.
Stats SA cautions that the recent provincial estimates are subject to revision.
The updated series provides a new benchmark for assessing the performance and changing structure of provincial economies. -- DDC