South Africa’s unemployment rate falls unexpectedly

South Africa’s unemployment rate unexpectedly declined for a second consecutive quarter, even as flooding devastated a major transportation hub and electricity outages intensified.

The jobless rate decreased to 33.9% in the three months through June from 34.5% in the previous quarter, Statistics South Africa said Tuesday in a report released in the capital, Pretoria. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of five economists was 35%.

The rate is still the highest on a list of 82 countries and the eurozone monitored by Bloomberg, though some of the data are outdated.