Business confidence up marginally last month

BUSINESS showed another, albeit slight, improvement last month, extending its rebound from the two-decadelow hit in September.

The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) business confidence index (BCI) gained 0.9 index points to 93.9 last month.

After October’s increase, the index has improved by 3.6 index points from the exceptionally low level of 90.3 registered in September – the lowest since July 1985.

The recovery of the BCI last month and in October was accomplished in a “depressed domestic and global economy and further harmful local sociopolitical diversions”, that influenced the business climate unfavourably, Sacci said yesterday.

“Notwithstanding the volatility in the business climate, the turnaround in the BCI could gather more momentum,” Sacci said.

The index is compiled by monitoring developments in 13 economic indicators each month.

The BCI showed that the indicators for real business conditions were slightly better last month than in November last year.

The building construction indicator improved compared with the matching period last year, which pushed the index up.

The manufacturing indicator improved compared with October, but was unchanged from a year earlier.