Manufacturing activity improves, but consumer debt surges
MANUFACTURING
activity improved in October, though rolling power cuts and a strike at freight rail and ports company Transnet prevented a stronger recovery. The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50 points from 48.2 points in September, hitting the 50-point mark that separates contraction from expansion.
PICK N PAY enabled in-store crypto currency payments to allow shoppers to buy groceries with digital tokens such as Bitcoin at 39 of its supermarkets countrywide. The decision came after the successful first phase of a new pilot project that tested the use of crypto payments at 10 Western Cape stores over the past five months.
THE South African
National Roads Agency said four of its five crucial road improvement and construction projects, valued at about R17bn, are back on track after tenders were awarded this week. The projects, crucial to support economic growth, were halted earlier this year due to “a material irregularity in the tender process”, including violation of internal control measures meant to prevent collusion.
PRIVATE-SECTOR
credit growth surged in September, rising at its steepest pace in seven years as consumers battling the cost of living crisis tapped their credit cards and drew down their overdrafts. This while base effects and energy reforms lifted corporate demand for debt. Reserve Bank data showed private-sector credit increased 9.7% year on year, topping expectations of 8.15% and extending growth in credit demand to the 15th straight month.
SOUTH Africans are paying almost 11% more for basic food items than they did a year ago, according to the latest household affordability index compiled by the Pietermaritzburg
Economic Justice and Dignity Group. The average cost of the household food basket rose from
R4,317.56 in October 2021 to R4,787.83 in October 2022.
PLATINUM group metals producer SibanyeStillwater said unprecedented power rationing and copper cable theft disrupted production during the third quarter, sending its shares down as much as 12%, the most since the early days of the pandemic. — BusinessLIVE and Reuters