Business confidence drops to record low on lockdown
JOHANNESBURG – South African business confidence plunged to the lowest level in 45 years due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with companies even more pessimistic now than when disinvestment from the country over its apartheid policies started gaining momentum more than three decades ago.
A quarterly gauge measuring business confidence fell to 5 in the second quarter from 18 in the previous three months, FirstRand Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank unit and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research said in a statement Wednesday. The index started in 1975 and the previous low of 12 was in 1985, RMB said. That was the year the United Nations Security Council called on members to introduce more far-reaching economic sanctions against South Africa.
A reading of 5 means “just about every respondent in the second quarter was unsatisfied with the prevailing business conditions,” RMB said. The survey was based on the responses of 1,800 business executives between May 13 and June 1.
Source: iol.co.za