South Africa overtakes Nigeria as Africa's largest economy

South Africa’s economy has leapfrogged Nigeria’s as Africa’s largest in dollar terms, reclaiming the top spot it lost two years ago.

Both economies face recession after contracting this year. But while the South African rand has gained more than 16 per cent since the beginning of 2016, Nigeria’s naira has plunged by more than a third of its value.

At their respective exchange rates, Nigeria’s gross domestic product is $296 billion, while the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, quoting the International Monetary Fund figures at the end of 2015.

Nigeria’s GDP was in excess of $500 billion when the nation’s economy surpassed South Africa’s in April 2014.

That followed the recalculation of the GDP data by the former government of Goodluck Jonathan – the first time that happened in two decades.

Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, and the economy has shrunk by 0.4% since 2015 amid low oil prices and output and acute shortage of foreign currency.