{"id":726782,"date":"2023-10-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=726782"},"modified":"2023-10-23T17:11:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T15:11:07","slug":"over-1200-businesses-have-shut-their-doors-in-south-africa-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/726782\/over-1200-businesses-have-shut-their-doors-in-south-africa-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 1,200 businesses have shut their doors in South Africa this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stats SA data shows that 1,240 businesses have closed down since the start of the year – but this is a substantial decrease from 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, 156 businesses closed down. 138 did so voluntarily, while the other 18 were closed down a compulsory basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is an 8.2% decrease from the September 2022. In addition, the number of liquidations dropped by 11% from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the first nine months of 2023, there was a 13.0% decrease in liquidations compared to the same period in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Looking per industry, the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sectors saw the most liquidations in the first nine months of the year, with 425. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was followed by trade, catering and accommodation, which saw 235 liquidations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The least affected industry this year has been electricity, gas and water, with only one closure throughout the entire year. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Warning signs <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the declining number of liquidations, there were several pieces of economic data that spelt bad news for South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, the BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (BETI) dropped from 133.9 in August to 133.6 in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a quarterly basis, the BETI dropped 2%, signalling the economy’s slowdown from the 0.6% increase in GDP in Q3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a valuable early indicator of economic activity, the BETI data reflects the ongoing \u2018muddle-along\u2019 narrative playing out in the South African economy,\u201d said Independent Economist Elize Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Headline Inflation increased from 4.8% in August to 5.4% in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it is within the South African Reserve Bank’s target range, the increase in inflation could lead to a further rate hike in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luigi Marinus, Portfolio Manager at PPS Investments, noted that two Monetary Policy Committee members went for a 25-basis point increase in the last meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis occurred when the latest inflation prints were 4.7% and 4.8%. The September print of 5.4% makes the likelihood of a rate increase even more likely, even though inflation is within the target band, as the inflation trajectory appears to be increasing,\u201d Marinus said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Investors shift interest rate expectations for South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of businesses are closing their doors in South Africa each month – but the pace has slowed down from the high rates seen 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":[1976,26,12927,1809],"class_list":["post-726782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bankservafrica","tag-headline","tag-pps-investments","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726782","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=726782"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726798,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726782\/revisions\/726798"}],"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=726782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}