South Africa's official unemployment rate edged lower in the fourth quarter of 2009, halting the massive job losses that had accompanied the first recession in nearly two decades.

Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday unemployment fell to 24.3 percent from 24.5 percent in the third quarter, with the economy creating 89,000 new jobs during the final three months of last year.

Africa's biggest economy registered positive annualised growth in the third quarter of last year - exiting its first recession since 1992 - after three consecutive quarters of contraction in which hundreds of thousands of jobs were slashed.

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