{"id":839977,"date":"2025-10-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839977"},"modified":"2025-10-15T09:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:57:20","slug":"south-africa-in-survival-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/839977\/south-africa-in-survival-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa in survival mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite economic activity in South Africa ticking up for a fifth consecutive month, the persistent low-growth environment shows that the country is operating in survival mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the findings from the latest PayInc Economic Index, which tracks millions of transactions processed by the PayInc platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group noted an improvement in economic activity for the fifth consecutive month in September 2025, but at marginal rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index continued its upward trend since April, reaching a revised level of 102.3 in September 2025. This is 0.2% higher than August\u2019s level and 3% above last year’s (in line with inflation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of transactions cleared through PayInc reached an all-time high of 181.1 million, surpassing the previous record of 177.8 million set in August 2025, and increasing by 15.5% from the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volume increases were recorded in all payment streams, except for Real-Time Clearing. The nominal value of electronic transactions also increased to R1.378 trillion in September compared to R1.351 trillion in August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While several positive factors are helping to sustain demand, the low growth rate indicates the economy is operating mostly in survival mode<\/strong>,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shergeran Naidoo, Head of Stakeholder Engagements at PayInc, said the data points to resilience in the economy, but belies the complexity of the prevailing environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo single factor is the primary driver of the outcome, but rather the outcome is the net effect of multiple forces,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent economist Elize Kruger noted that tailwinds and positive developments, such as low inflation and interest rate cuts, are countering the potential negative impact of headwinds and challenges, such as the uncertain global environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans are also benefiting from real salary increases for the second consecutive year, lower fuel costs, higher commodity prices, and a stable and stronger rand exchange rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese factors, cumulatively, support base demand in the economy, despite low confidence levels, uncertainties and high cost of living challenges,\u201d said Kruger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these positives are not enough to fully counter the longer-term stagnation of the economy. Kruger warned that South Africa remains on the back foot, with economic growth likely to be around 1% for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is lower than population growth, making South Africans poorer per capita in an environment that is not stimulating job creation and employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This remains concerning given that one out of three willing people in South Africa are already unable to find employment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surviving not thriving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Independent economist, Elize Kruger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The PayInc Economic Index’s findings are confirmed by other economic indicators released in recent weeks, which show resilience in the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naamsa revealed that the vehicle sales market maintained its robust performance in September 2025. Total vehicle sales improved by 24.3% y\/y in September 2025, with year-to-date sales up by 15.6% compared to a year earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New car sales in September increased by a notable 28.0% year-over-year, and year-to-date, they were 22.1% ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S&P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index \u2013 a composite gauge designed to give a single-figure snapshot of operating conditions in the private sector economy \u2013 remained in expansionary territory with an index level of 50.2 in September, marginally up from the 50.1 in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index signalled a mild improvement in the health of the private sector economy, marking the fifth consecutive month of recorded growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on prospects in the manufacturing sector, the seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index (PMI) increased to 52.2 in September 2025 and returned to expansionary territory for the second time in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouragingly, the average PMI for Q3 2025 rose to 50.8 points, showing an increase from the previous quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report noted that the industry continues to face challenges, as export demand remains sluggish and is further complicated by US trade tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite the underlying resilience evident in the economy, the narrative is one of “surviving rather than thriving,\u201d said Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the economic growth rate still stuck at around 1%, the business environment remains challenging as seen in the number of job losses announced in recent weeks, in different sectors of the economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects the underlying strain, especially in sectors directly affected by factors such as the impact of US import tariffs, which could place downward pressure on economic activity in the final months of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite economic activity in South Africa ticking up for a fifth consecutive month, the persistent low-growth environment shows that the country is operating in survival mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":694695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[21705,23495],"class_list":["post-839977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-elize-kruger","tag-payinc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839977","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839989,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839977\/revisions\/839989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}