Mining accident deaths fall but inflation rises

THE number of workers killed in South Africa’s mines fell to a record low of 73 last year from 77 in 2015, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said. It was the ninth consecutive year that the industry reported a lower number of deaths. NEW vehicle sales were expected to rise by between 2.5% and 3.5% in 2017, said Nico Vermeulen, director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa. This follows three successive years of decline. BLACK Friday helped provide a surprise boost to November retail sales, which grew an unexpected 3.8% year on year. The marketing gimmick helped lift retail sales by 3.5% from October to November. THE South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s seasonally adjusted trade activity index improved from 49 index points in November to 53 in December despite tight trade conditions, it said. SOUTH Africa’s headline consumer inflation accelerated to 6.8% year on year in December, beating market expectations, from 6.6% in November, data from Stats SA showed. On a month-on-month basis, inflation quickened to 0.4% from 0.3% previously. MINING output plunged 4.2% in November from a year earlier, Stats SA said. October’s figure was revised to a 2.6% decrease from a decline of 2.9%. The main contributors to the drop were platinum group metals, gold and iron ore. The South African economy might struggle to muster growth of more than 1% in 2017, the IMF projected. It expected the country to grow by 0.8% this year following the 0.3% it has estimated for 2016, it said in the World Economic Outlook. THE consumer confidence index — sponsored by First National Bank and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research — slumped to -10 in the fourth quarter after registering -3 in the third quarter.