{"id":706534,"date":"2023-07-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=706534"},"modified":"2023-07-25T06:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T04:45:15","slug":"over-800-businesses-in-south-africa-have-closed-their-doors-since-the-start-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/706534\/over-800-businesses-in-south-africa-have-closed-their-doors-since-the-start-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 800 businesses in South Africa have closed their doors since the start of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The number of liquidations in South Africa increased by 128 in June, data from Stats SA shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA, 116 businesses closed their doors voluntarily, while 12 did so on a compulsory basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This takes the total number of liquidations in South Africa since the start of the year to 802, adding to the 151 businesses that were liquidated in May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it should be noted that the number of liquidations in South Africa has decreased substantially compared to 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA said that there was an 11.7% decrease in liquidations from June 2022 to June 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also said that there was a 17.0% decrease in liquidations in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total number of liquidations also declined by 14.0% from the first half of 2022 to the first half of 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

According to the data, the financing, insurance, real estate, and business services industry was the hardest hit, with 41 liquidations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was followed by the unclassified industry with 40 liquidations and the trade, catering and accommodation industry with 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other end of the scale, the electricity, gas and water industry saw no liquidations during the month, with it yet to see a single liquidation in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the whole year, the financing, insurance, real estate, and business services industry has been the worst hit, with 278 liquidations since the start of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Sentiment is shifting <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although South Africa still faces a challenging economic enviroment, and many businesses could still be on the chopping block, recent economic news has been broadly positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very obvious sign was the reduction in load shedding in June, with a reduction in demand, less maintenance and improved performance of the nation’s coal fleet, enabling Eskom to keep the lights on for longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer Price Inflation <\/a>also cooled from 6.3% in May to 5.4% in June, which led to the South African Reserve Bank keeping rates on hold after ten consecutive hikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (BETI<\/a>) – a standardised value of all the economic transactions in the South African economy – grew from 132.2 in May to 133.6 in June, the most elevated status since July 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the BETI in June was still in negative territory compared to the previous year, it had progressed compared to previous months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 7.4% decline in May grew to a 2.0% decline in June, with a low-cost calculation adding to the improvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BankservAfrica said that the BETI’s improvement signals a positive growth rate for Q2 2023, as the BETI from March to June improved by 2.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith many economic challenges remaining, and as the possibility of elevated load shedding levels for winter remains, the improvement in the BETI is not necessarily the start of a sustained synchronised economic recovery, but it indeed signals that the economy has probably fared better in Q2 than initially expected,\u201d Elize Kruger, an Independent Economist, said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read:<\/strong> Massive shift in shopping habits in South Africa as consumers adapt to load shedding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the challenging economic environment facing South Africa, the number of liquidations decreased in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":680271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,1809],"class_list":["post-706534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":706602,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706534\/revisions\/706602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}