{"id":860273,"date":"2026-05-13T09:09:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=860273"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:09:56","slug":"south-africans-are-getting-crushed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/860273\/south-africans-are-getting-crushed\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans are getting crushed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest PayInc Economic Index showed a marked decline in April 2026, signalling the mounting pressure on South African households and the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Index, economic activity declined 0.5% month-on-month to an index score of 104.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index tracks the value of all electronic transactions cleared through PayInc, together with a wholesale cash component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the index is 6.1% higher than a year ago\u2014when the local economy came under severe pressure from a tariff war launched by the United States\u2014the current conditions are hitting households hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PayInc noted that the decline reflects the impact of the massive fuel price hikes that hit the country in April, delivering a blow to households and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April also saw a huge 8.8% increase in electricity tariffs from power utility Eskom, which added to the challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The moderation [in economic activity] comes amid growing uncertainty around the economic impact of the ongoing conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This has led to significant fuel price increases introduced since April 2026.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cumulatively, South Africa has seen increases of R6.29\/litre for petrol and R12.60\/litre for diesel over the past two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of the direct impact on households and businesses, the higher prices are expected to have broader inflationary effects across the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the index showed softer transaction activity across several payment streams in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volume growth across the Real Time Clearing, PayShap and EFT credit transactions contracted, while all payment streams \u2013 except DebiCheck \u2013 recorded declines in transaction values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reaching 195.5 million transactions in March, the number of transactions cleared through PayInc declined to 186.3 million in April, although still 11.0% higher than a year ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nominal value of electronic transactions similarly eased to R1.367 trillion from R1.475 trillion in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans warned to brace for more strain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Independent economist, Elize Kruger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to independent economist Elize Kruger, consumers and businesses are already responding to the pressure of higher costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is expected to continue influencing spending patterns in the months ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While the economy continues to demonstrate resilience in some sectors, the current environment points to a more cautious consumer and business outlook,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, analysts are closely monitoring upcoming economic data for potential second-round price effects stemming from higher fuel costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer behaviour is already shifting in response to these pressures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to data released by Discovery Insure, motorists reduced fuel consumption by 35% during April, while trips declined by 10% and total distance travelled fell by 9%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With transport costs escalating, PayInc said it expects weaker discretionary spending and softer demand for non-essential goods and services in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More positively, Kruger noted that current fuel price recovery data from the Central Energy Fund points to a notable over-recovery for diesel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with 50% of the fuel tax relief being added back to the price (adding R1.97 back), diesel users are still in line for some relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the broader economic outlook for 2026 remains subdued, Kruger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s unemployment rate also remains elevated at 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026, reinforcing the challenging operating environment facing households and businesses,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the strained environment, PayInc pointed to other economic indicators that continued to show resilience during April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figures released by Naamsa showed that total vehicle sales increased by 13.0% year-on-year in April 2026, while new car sales advanced by 14.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S&P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index also improved to 51.6 in April from 50.8 in March, reflecting the strongest expansion in private sector business conditions in 44 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seasonally adjusted Absa PMI similarly rose above the neutral 50-point mark for the first time since September 2025, increasing to 52.6 in April from 49.0 in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the positive data comes with the caveat that the full impact of the Iran War has not been factored in, and the picture may change rapidly as inflationary pressures intensify. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest PayInc Economic Index showed a marked decline in April 2026, signalling the mounting pressure on South African households and the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":860279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[21705,23495],"class_list":["post-860273","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\/860273","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=860273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860280,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860273\/revisions\/860280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}