Cape Town — Africa's biggest economy, that of South Africa, contracted by a shock six percent in the first quarter of this year, confiming that the country has slid into its first recession in the democratic era.

After contracting by 1.8 percent in the last quarter of 2008, real gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices dropped by 6.4 percent, the government agency, Statistics South Africa, announced on Tuesday.

"This is the first instance of two consecutive quarters of negative growth since the fourth quarter of 1992," the agency said.

Analysts were predicting a decline of only around four percent in the first quarter.

Statistics SA added that the main contributors to the reduction in economic activity were manufacturing, mining and quarrying and the finance, real estate and business services sectors.

There had been slight growth in general government services, construction and the personal services sector.

The monetary policy committee of South Africa's Reserve Bank is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss interest rates. Economists suggest that the bad GDP news will put additional pressure on the committee to continue cutting interest rates to boost spending and counteract the recession.