Katlego Legodi

The decline in the index was mainly attributed to lower export volumes.

SACCI says stronger imports, vehicle sales and rising tourist numbers had a positive influence.

The Chamber’s Richard Downing maintains that the overall business confidence remained stable after strong improvement in the second half of 2024.

“We are using 14 industries to compile the composite Business Confidence Index and it’s only actually, one of them, merchandise import volumes, that declined about in January, you know and that’s decline of course, actually had one index points dip in January, but that’s the definition. It wasn’t serious as such because a lot of other positive moves in the economy and in the business environment still kept the index up above the 120 level, which is a very good level if you compare it to what happened in the past and where we were. It seems like there’s still some convincing that the Government of National Unity will attend to economics and get economic growth going.”

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