Eastern Cape's economy is in recession after contracting for three consecutive quarters. Business leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay believe there's a chance to turn it around.

The latest economic figures released by the Eastern Cape Soci0-Economic Consultative Council show that the province's economy is in a recession after contracting for a third consecutive quarter.

Eastern Cape's GDP declined by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2024 and 0.1% and 0.3% in the last two quarters of 2023, said the report.

The largest contributors to the decline in GDP growth were construction, manufacturing and mining industries.

"The only positive contributors to provincial GDP growth in the first quarter were agriculture and electricity industries," said the Eastern Cape Soci0-Economic Consultative Council.

The CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, Denise van Huyssteen, said the provincial recession was no surprise given the country's significant structural challenges over the past few years.

"These have ranged from logistics inefficiencies, the impact of crime on the cost of doing business, crumbling and poorly maintained infrastructure, through to the lack of reliable and stable power supply," she said.

Van Huyssteen said Nelson Mandela Bay, the province's biggest metro, was particularly vulnerable to these factors as its economy was anchored around manufacturing and the supply chain and ecosystem which supported this.

"For manufacturing to succeed, an enabling environment needs to be in...