{"id":842912,"date":"2025-11-12T12:14:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=842912"},"modified":"2025-11-12T12:14:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:14:31","slug":"another-win-for-the-south-african-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/842912\/another-win-for-the-south-african-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Another win for the South African economy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The PayInc Economic Index continued its upward trend in October, adding to several other improved economic indicators in the country, even if more is needed for sustained economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe PayInc Economic Index reached 103.0 in October 2025, a 0.8% improvement on September\u2019s level \u2013 and a 4% hike on year ago levels,\u201d says Shergeran Naidoo from PayInc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A notable uptick in economic activity in October indicates that the economy\u2019s improvement has spilled over into Q4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indicator comes a day after the Quarterly Labour Force Survey showed an improvement in unemployment of 1.3 percentage points to 31.9%. While still high, its in the right direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite numerous challenges and ongoing uncertainties, the economy is still showing remarkable resilience, with a few sectors outperforming,\u201d said economist Elize Kruger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, economic growth still remains constrained amid weak investment growth in the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth is expected to remain at around 1%, with the business environment remaining constrained and the economy failing to create enough jobs to effectively tackle unemployment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kruger said that significantly higher levels of investment spending is needed to increase the economy\u2019s growth potential in a sustainable manner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there are several development that are looking to drive growth, most notability in structural reforms in many sectors that should increase  investment spending\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the updated Integrated Resource Plan, which sees the private sector play a much larger role in electricity generation. R2.2 trillion in investment will be needed by 2042. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transnet is also set to embark on a massive capital expenditure programme worth about R127 billion to improve the performance of rail networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although interventions are also planned for other sectors such as water, South Africa needs to focus on implementation, which remains its Achilles Heel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The downward trend evident in South Africa\u2019s Gross Fixed Capital Formation to GDP ratio has been a key factor in the lacklustre growth in the economy over the the last decade, Kruger said. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Indicators remain mixed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Other economic indicators for October were mixed, but still point to an improvement in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naamsa\u2019s data revealed that vehicle sales continued to be robust in October 2025, with total vehicle sales up 16.0% y\/y in October 2025. Year-to-date sales are up 15.7%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S&P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index (PMI), which measures conditions in the private sector, showed a contraction to negative territory in October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this was the first decline in sector months following renewed downturns in output and sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S&P noted that the slowdown occurred despite a historic improvement in supplier delivery times and one of the softest levels of cost pressures since mid-2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Absa PMI also slipped back into negative territory in October, with the manufacturing sector\u2019s performance remaining under pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand remains sluggish on the export side, complicated by the rise in US trade tariffs and logistical challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the underlying resilience evident in the economy remains encouraging, the economic growth rate is still stuck around 1%, keeping the economy firmly in a narrative of muddling along,\u201d said Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as economic growth remains below population growth, South Africans are worse off year by year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest PayInc Economic Index has highlighted the improved conditions in South Africa’s economy, even if more is still needed to ensure sustained growth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":644211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[23495,3619],"class_list":["post-842912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-payinc","tag-sarb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842912","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=842912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842933,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842912\/revisions\/842933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}