Hits&Misses

Lots of shopping being done even as SA’s competitiveness slides

RETAILERS

surprised economists in August with annual sales growth of 2.5% — far higher than the consensus of 0.3%. In current prices, total retail sales came to R86.7bn, up from July’s R82.2bn, Stats SA reported. Of the seven types of retailers it segments its report into, furniture stores enjoyed the fastest annual sales growth, at 10.4%.

ADCORP

returned to profitability in the six months to end-August after the recruitment group cut costs as part of its restructuring. The company reported a net profit of R99m, swinging from a loss of R36m in the matching period a year before. PICK

n Pay Stores said half-year profit before tax jumped 19.1% as price cuts attracted more shoppers to its stores. The country’s secondbiggest grocery-store chain reported profit before tax of R670.2m, compared with R562.8m in the same period last year on a normalised basis. SA

continued its downward spiral in the global competitiveness rankings, falling to 67 out of 140 countries, the World Economic Forum’s “Competitiveness Report” for 2018-2019 showed. This comes as a blow after SA fell into a recession for the first time since the global financial crisis. There have been contractions in nine of the 38 quarters since 2008, and growth has struggled to breach the 2% mark.

MOTORISTS,

already reeling from successive fuel price hikes, are likely to experience more nasty surprises in the next few months. Some estimates are that the oil price will increase from $80 a barrel to $100 before the year is out, heaping more misery on already stretched consumers.

PRIVATE

hospital group Mediclinic’s share price shed 17% to R73.96 after it warned shareholders its interim earnings fell. It expected to report that adjusted earnings per share dropped about 11.5%.