South Africa regains Africa's 'biggest economy' title from Nigeria

GDP Figures

South Africa has regained the title of Africa's largest economy, two years after Nigeria rebased its economy to claim the spot, according to IMF data.

A recalculation using current exchange rates put South Africa on top because the rand has strengthened against the dollar.

Nigeria's currency has fallen sharply since a peg to the dollar was dropped.
But BBC Africa Business Report editor Matthew Davies says both economies could be on the brink of recession.

Nigeria rebased its economy in 2014 to include previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production.

Most countries do rebasing, updating the measure of the size of the economy, at least every three years or so, but Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP base year since 1990.

Source: BBC