{"id":783085,"date":"2024-07-18T09:44:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T07:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=783085"},"modified":"2024-07-18T09:45:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T07:45:20","slug":"load-shedding-boost-for-business-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/783085\/load-shedding-boost-for-business-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Load shedding boost for business in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Retail trade sales surprised on the upside in South Africa, with decreased load shedding benefitting retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Stats SA, measured in real terms, retail trade sales increased by 0.8% year-on-year in May 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was an improvement from the 0.7% in April and ahead of the Bloomberg consensus of a 0.6% increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The largest positive contributors to this increase were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>general dealers (1.7% and contributing 0.7 of a percentage point);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>retailers in food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores (4.4% and contributing 0.3 of a percentage&nbsp;point); and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>retailers in household furniture, appliances and equipment (6.2% and contributing 0.3 of a percentage point).&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods were the only negative contributors (-4.5% and contributing\u00a0-0.9 of a percentage point).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seasonally adjusted retail trade sales decreased by 0.7% in May 2024 compared with April 2024. This followed month-on-month changes of 0.5% in April 2024 and 1.0% in March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the three months ending May 2024, retail trade sales increased by 1.3% compared with the three months ending May 2023. General dealers contributed the largest positive increase (2.9% and 1.2 percentage points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, seasonally adjusted retail trade sales increased by 0.6% in the three months ended May 2024 compared with the prior three months. The largest contributor to the increase was general dealers (0,4% and contributing 0,2 of a percentage point).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01-1024x236.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-783086\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01-1024x236.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01-768x177.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-18-at-08.47.01.png 1476w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Investec Economist Lara Hodes said that the hardware, paint, and glass category grew by 0.9% in May after consistently underperforming over the last two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the BER\u2019s retail survey, in contrast to sentiment amongst retailers in the semi-durable goods category, confidence amongst durable goods retailers (hardware and furniture) improved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConfidence among hardware retailers more than tripled from 15% to 47%. For the first time in two years, it is close to the long-term average, as is the profitability index for this category of retailers,&#8221; said the BER survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hodes said that an improvement in electricity supply helped retailers, with Eskom not implementing load shedding for over 100 days\u2014the first time since 2021.  &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inflation is set to continue downwards, which will support consumers&#8217; real incomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BankservAfrica said that salaries adjusted for inflation tracked slightly higher at R14,015 in May &#8211; up 4.5% from a year prior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are anticipating a start to the interest rate cutting cycle in November or Q1.25\u2014but await further guidance at today&#8217;s MPC meeting\u2014which will ease the plight of the indebted and further support HCE growth,&#8221; said Hodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are still question marks over when interest rates will be cut, with economists and analysts divided. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank of America only expects the first cut in January 2025, while the Bureau for Economic Research and Nedbank expect the first cut in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG are among&nbsp;three of 23 participants&nbsp;in a Bloomberg survey that predict that the monetary policy committee will reduce interest rates by 25 basis points later today<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A separate Bloomberg survey also found that the majority of economists expect the MPC to be split on the decision, with one member potentially pushing for a 25 basis-point cut while the other five hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"nlX0h2PLaS\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/783083\/hope-for-an-interest-rate-surprise-in-south-africa\/\">Hope for an interest rate surprise in South Africa<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Hope for an interest rate surprise in South Africa&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/783083\/hope-for-an-interest-rate-surprise-in-south-africa\/embed\/#?secret=um4VY1CjYm#?secret=nlX0h2PLaS\" data-secret=\"nlX0h2PLaS\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/783064\/mantashe-eyes-private-investors-and-government-working-to-dump-greylisting\/\">Mantashe eyes private investors and government working to dump greylisting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retail trade sales increased slightly higher than expected, with consumers set for further relief in the near future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":759847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,1498,1809],"class_list":["post-783085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-investec","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783085","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=783085"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783116,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783085\/revisions\/783116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}