South Africa: Conditions improve marginally in November
The S&P Global Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 50.6 in November from October’s 49.5. As such, the index broke through the 50.0 no-change mark, signaling a marginal improvement in private-sector operating conditions from the previous month.
Novembers upturn came on the back of a slight increase in new business. This prompted firms to onboard new staff in the month. Nevertheless, the increase in new orders was capped by weak domestic and global conditions, and load shedding, which in turn restrained operating capacity and led to yet another decline in output. Meanwhile, recent port strikes and material shortages hurt input arrivals and constrained supply chains. With regard to prices, fuel prices, staff costs and an unfavorable exchange rate continued to drive up purchase and selling costs, although they increased at the softest rate since August 2021. Lastly, firms were upbeat regarding the coming 12 months; they expected both inflation and load shedding to ease.