Covid panic attack helps retailers but unemployment soars

RETAIL

sales turned in a better-than-expected performance in March, supported by an improvement by general dealers, data from Stats SA showed. Sales rose 2.7% year on year against an increase of 1.9% in February. The improvement in sales followed a rise in panic buying in March ahead of the implementation of the national lockdown on March 27.

CONSUMER

price inflation slowed to its lowest level in almost 15 years in April as SA went into its most severe period of lockdown restrictions. Consumer inflation, which slowed to 3%, is now at the bottom of the Reserve Bank’s target range of 3%-6%. According to Stats SA, this is the lowest inflation has been since June 2005, when it was 2.8%.

RETAIL

group Mr Price said sales crashed almost 90% in April during the height of the lockdown, but pent-up demand had resulted in double-digit sales growth in May and so far in June.

SA’S

jobs and growth crisis was picking up even before the Covid-19 outbreak that is set to plunge the economy into its biggest slump since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate climbed to a record 30.1% in the first quarter, Stats SA said, while the Reserve Bank’s composite leading business cycle indicator slid just over 5% in April from March.

FINANCE

minister Tito Mboweni delivered a grim assessment of the country’s finances in a special adjustment budget that forecast a deep recession and plunging tax revenue. GDP is forecast to shrink 7.2% this year, and the consolidated budget deficit is expected to surge to 15.7%.

AFRICAN

Bank Holdings, the entity that arose from one of SA’s biggest banking collapses, slipped into a loss in its half-year to end-March after making adjustments for Covid19 that hit group aftertax profit by R614m.