Mining output up, confidence down

MINING production rose 7.7% year on year in April, with the highest positive growth rate recorded for platinum group metals at 81.6%‚ partly the result of a low base in April 2014, when the sector was hit by industrial action. AFRICAN leaders signed a potentially historic 26-nation free trade pact — the Tripartite Free Trade Area — to create a common market spanning half the continent from Cairo to Cape Town. ALEXANDER Forbes raised full-year net operating income from continuing operations‚ net of direct expenses‚ by 12% to R4.9-billion. A weaker rand against the pound benefited its offshore operations, it said. AFRICAN Bank‚ which collapsed in August‚ plans to start a new lender built from its viable assets by October‚ even as it forecast that losses posted for the full year would continue for the first half. SOUTH Africa’s 2015 economic growth forecast of 2% is “attainable and realistic” and would have been significantly higher if there were no electricity shortages, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said. BUSINESS confidence in South Africa deteriorated in the second quarter, with the Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research business confidence index dipping to 43 from 49 in the first quarter. A NEW three-year deal to increase wages for public servants in South Africa would cost the country R61-billion, said Nathi Mthethwa, the acting minister of public service and administration. THE local poultry industry stood to lose about R900-million in annual turnover and potentially shed about 6 500 jobs as a result of a deal clinched with its US counterpart‚ SA Poultry Association CEO Kevin Lovell said. FITCH has cut its 2015 and 2016 economic growth forecasts for South Africa due to ongoing energy supply constraints. It now forecasts the economy to grow 2.1% this year and 2.3% next year. MANUFACTURING production unexpectedly contracted by 2% year on year in April after a revised 4% increase in March, Stats SA said. On a month-onmonth basis, factory output was also down 2%.