JOHANNESBURG, June 3 (Reuters) - The South African rand

weakened on Tuesday after first-quarter gross domestic product

(GDP) data came in marginally better than expected but showed

that the economy had stagnated.

Africa's most advanced economy eked out quarter-on-quarter

growth of just 0.1%, as contractions in sectors

like mining and manufacturing offset a strong performance by

agriculture.

At 1515 GMT the rand traded at 17.90 against the dollar

, down 0.3% on Monday's closing level.

After the GDP report U.S. bank Citi said it was lowering its

forecast for South Africa's economic growth this year to 1.0%

from 1.2%, saying that would have negative implications for the

fiscal outlook as well.

The coalition government is trying to lift growth through

reforms, but longstanding problems like logistics bottlenecks at

the ports and on the freight rail network continue to hold back

growth.

On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the Top-40 index

closed down about 0.4%.

The benchmark 2035 government bond was stronger,

as the yield fell 9.5 basis points to 10.11%.