PRETORIA, Oct 29 (Reuters) - South Africa's economy was estimated to be 4.9% larger than previously reported after a benchmarking and rebasing exercise, the statistics agency said on Thursday.
• Statistics South Africa said the exercise raised the size of the economy in 2022 to 6.99 trillion rand ($420.19 billion) from a previously published estimate of 6.67 trillion rand
• The agency said it changed the base year for its gross domestic product (GDP) estimates to 2022 from 2015
• It also took into account changes in the composition of formal and informal parts of the economy
• All 10 sectors that it tracks were shown to have higher output, with mining, finance and trade registering the largest increases, partly due to factoring in illicit or illegal activity in those industries
• In nominal terms last year's GDP was revised to 8.04 trillion rand from 7.64 trillion rand
($1 = 16.6354 rand)
(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi;Additional reporting by Nilutpal Timsina;Editing by Alexander Winning)