(Bloomberg) -- South African retail sales expanded at the slowest pace in 18 months in September, signalling a slow rebound for the economy from a recession it plunged into in the second quarter.

Retail sales rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier compared with growth of 2.5 percent in August, the Pretoria-based statistics agency said Wednesday. The median in a Bloomberg survey was 1.9 percent. Sales fell 0.6 percent in the month.

Key Insights:

• Sales increased 1.5 percent in the three months through September from the same period last year.
• The retail-sales figures are the last of the high-frequency economic data published for the third quarter. While manufacturing output increased year on year in every month of the quarter, mining production dropped every month.
• The economy slipped into a recession in the second quarter. Data for gross domestic product in the third quarter is due on Dec. 4.

To contact the reporter on this story: Prinesha Naidoo in Johannesburg at pnaidoo7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro

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