South African business sentiment deteriorated last month amid subdued business activity and sluggish demand as President Donald Trump\u2019s trade tariffs began taking a toll on exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absa Group Ltd.\u2019s Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index, compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, declined to 49.5 in August, the Johannesburg-based lender said in an emailed statement on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That compares with a reading of 50.8 in July, when it returned to expansionary territory above 50 for the first time in nine months.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBoth domestic and global demand remain under pressure,\u201d the lender said. \u201cRespondents refer to tariffs hurting exports, even if they themselves are not directly impacted, some mention knock-on implications of impacted clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump last month imposed a 30% tariff on a number of products South Africa ships to the US, with the automotive and agricultural industries hardest hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa\u2019s trade minister estimates that about 30,000 jobs will be affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A gauge tracking new sales orders fell to 47.4 in August, compared with 55.9 in the prior period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A business activity index declined to 45.8 from 47.1 previously, while the supplier-deliveries gauge dropped to 53 in August from 56.4 due to declining orders, Absa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respondents noted an increase in competition arising from an influx of cheaper imports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South African business sentiment deteriorated last month amid subdued business activity and sluggish demand as President Donald Trump\u2019s trade tariffs began taking a toll on exports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":800960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[17723,3281],"class_list":["post-836526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pmi","tag-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836526","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836527,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836526\/revisions\/836527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}