South Africa's economy has come out of recession, with growth of 0.9 per cent in the third quarter of this year.

Results, adjusted for seasonal variations, released on Tuesday showed southern Africa's biggest economy to have ended it's first period of negative growth in 17 years, the country's national statistics board said.

"The seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product [GDP] at market prices for the third quarter of 2009 increased by an annualised rate of 0.9 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2009," Statistics South Africa said.

The country had suffered economic contractions for nine months, and the 2009 third quarter results were better than expected.

"The short-term indicators seem to tell us that the economy is picking up but long-term indicators tell us the economy is still [weak]," Joe De Beer, Statistics South Africa's head of economic analysis and research, said.

The central bank loosened monetary policy in December last year, cutting interest rates by five percentage points, in an attempt to provide economic stimulus.

Annabel Bishop, an economist at Investec, said: "South Africa's better-than-expected GDP outcome closes the door on any further interest rate cuts, and potentially brings the timing of the first rate hike closer."

But Bishop said that South Africa's dependence on global demand, high job losses and native firms' failures would prevent a sharp recovery.

In the first quarter of this year, GDP fell by 6.4 per cent, followed by a 3 per cent drop in the second quarter.