Sentiment among South African manufacturers climbed to a three-month high in January, driven by improving local demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absa Group Ltd.\u2019s Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index, compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, rose to 48.7 from 40.5 in December, the Johannesburg-based lender said in an emailed statement on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reading nonetheless remained below the 50-point mark for a fourth straight month, signaling a continued industry contraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe size of the improvement is notable and suggests a potential reset in production momentum entering the first quarter of the year,\u201d Absa said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile the headline index remains below 50, signs of improving activity, easing input costs and stronger domestic demand provide early momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A continued upward trend in orders and production will be crucial to sustain the current recovery, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A business-activity index increased by 5.3 points to 51.4, fueled by a renewed pickup in manufacturing production, while a new sales-order gauge rose 10 points to 45.4, underpinned by increased local demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis represents a meaningful improvement,\u201d Absa said. \u201cThe increase was driven entirely by domestic demand, as export sales continued to weaken and dropped to their lowest level since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, likely weighed down by the stronger rand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A gauge measuring expected business conditions in six months\u2019 time dipped to 66.4 from 68.8, as manufacturers remain cautiously optimistic about the recovery’s significance.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sentiment among South African manufacturers climbed to a three-month high in January, driven by improving local demand.<\/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":[29,14829,17723],"class_list":["post-849576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-absa","tag-ber","tag-pmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849576","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=849576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":849580,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849576\/revisions\/849580"}],"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=849576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}