South Africa’s manufacturing sector has recovered lost ground following a range of demand and supply-side shocks suffered in July, the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) reports.
In its latest Monday assessment, the BER says “on a seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturing output was up by 7.6%, following the 8.4% contraction in July”.
Annually manufacturing is also better off.
“Real recovery output increased by 1.8% year-on-year after a 4.8% fall in July.”
Taking a closer look at the manufacturing segments that did well, the Bureau found that the largest contributors to annual growth were food and beverages (rising by 9.7% and contributing 2.3% pts), followed by motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment (17.7%; 1.4% pts).
“Importantly, while total manufacturing output improved in August, it did not completely recover from the significant decline registered in July.”