South Africa’s economy continues its descent into hell. After falling, in 2014, to the second position as the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics released an update, the country now loses its silver medal as well. In a report published on May 11, 2016, audit and counseling firm KPMG revealed that Egypt stripped the rainbow nation of its position, as rand (SA’s currency) significantly weakened to dollar over the past four years.

The analysis which is based on data present in IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) latest global economic outlook report, highlights that South Africa’s economy slumped between 2012 and 2015 as its real growth (in rand) slowed and due to rand’s important depreciation to dollar. In 2012, the rand was traded at R8.2 for $1 in average, against R12.74 for $1 the year before, thus falling more than 50%.

The nominal value of South Africa’s GDP in dollar has therefore declined by 7%/yr average over the past four years. In parallel, the value for Egypt surged 7.5% average from 2012 to 2015. Egyptian Pound’s depreciation to dollar over the period was thus way slower than rand’s.

According to IMF, the South African economy should grow by 0.6% in 2016. The organization however did not make any forecast regarding the growth of Egypt’s GDP this year but noted a major uncertainty regarding the short and midterm curves of the Egyptian Pound.

Let us recall that Nigeria’s GDP passed South Africa’s in 2011. At the end of 2015, this value was $490 billion while South Africa’s was $313 billion.