Chief economist from Investment Solutions, Chris Hart, said on Tuesday that the global crisis could see global growth and possibly also South African growth face the prospect of negative GDP in the fourth quarter of this year.

Hart, who was speaking on Tuesday at a conference organised by Omega Investment Research on the impact of the current US election, said that there are important implications of the credit crisis for SA and for Africa.

He noted that commodity prices have gone "through the floor", with platinum miners, for example, going from boom to distress in three short months.

"It goes across Africa, as commodity price falls are going to provide a big challenge," he said.

"Also see stock prices are falling – there is no place to hide – they are under pressure across the globe," added Hart.

"Currencies are also an enormous challenge with the volatility and the rand is significant weaker," he said.

"This is a developed market problem with risk centred in the US," Hart pointed out.

South Africa's real gross domestic product at market prices on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis rose by 4.9 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from 2.1 percent in the first quarter. Third quarter data is due to be released in a week's time.

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