Mining, production data set to show continuing climb

MANUFACTURING and mining production data should dominate the release calendar next week, but there are other releases that will add colour to how the economy started the year.

The manufacturing data is the first release and that will be published on Tuesday by Statistics South Africa.

In the gross domestic product release for 2017, manufacturing grew by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter (q/q) on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis in the fourth quarter, and the February data should show that this growth momentum carried into 2018, as many shops are very low on inventories and have frequent stock- outs.

Manufacturing production grew by 2.5% year- on- year (y/y) in January 2018 after a 0.5% drop in 2017. There has been a fairly steady upward progression in the seasonally adjusted manufacturing production index since March 2017 and the index in December 2017 was up a massive 5% since then.

The gains in manufacturing are broad-based, with seven out of the 10 sectors showing a q/q rise in the fourth quarter. In January 2018 food production was up 10.1% y/y, but chemical production was down 3.2% y/y.

The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Trade Activity Index on Thursday will help to show how economic indicators have reacted in March after a downturn in February.

The seasonally adjusted South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Trade Activity Index fell to 42 in Feb-