Manufacturing production rises 2.5%

STATISTICS South Africa said yesterday that manufacturing production rose 2.5 percent year on year in January, the biggest gain in manufacturing output since June 2016.

On a monthly basis, manufacturing production dropped 1.6 percent in January, after a 1.1 percent gain the previous month.

John Ashbourne, an Africa economist at Capital Economics, said yesterday’s data supported his view that the economy had retained momentum at the beginning of the year.

The higher production was concentrated in the food and beverages category, which surged 10.1 percent year on year.

The petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products category made the largest negative contribution to headline growth, dropping 3.2 percent.

The rand reacted positively to the manufacturing data, strengthening from R11.84 to the dollar before the data was released to R11.75, before retreating to R11.78 by 5pm.