South Africa has regained its position as Africa’s largest economy in dollar terms after being bumped to second and then third place (with Nigeria in first and Egypt in second).
This comes as the rand gained more than 16% against the dollar since the start of the year, while Nigeria's naira lost more than a third of its value after the Central Bank of Nigeria removed the country's currency peg in June.
Bloomberg reported:
"Based on gross domestic product at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund, the size of South Africa's economy is $301 billion at the rand's current exchange rate, while Nigeria's GDP is $296 billion."
Despite this, both countries still face the risk of recession - Nigeria's economy shrank by 0.4% in the first quarter of this year, while South Africa's GDP contracted by 0.2%.
