SA business confidence level back to pre-pandemic levels

The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, simply Sacci, has recently published a statement regarding the business confidence in the country. According to the report, the business confidence in South Africa has climbed to its highest level in over three years.

The data was published on Wednesday and shows that the business confidence index for May was up to 97 from the previous 94.7 level. This is the highest level recorded since the March of 2018. At this time, the confidence index of business was 97.6. Business confidence has been something that the country was committed to increasing for the past few weeks.

The business confidence index has reached further than the pre-pandemic levels, which is a huge thing for the country and the process of reopening the economy. The country has implemented a level 5 harsh lockdown in March 2020 to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Following the implementation of the restrictions, the business confidence level hit a low of 70 points in May 2020. Since then, it has climbed quite high. According to the statement of Sacci, one of the major reasons for the improvements in confidence might be the increase in export volumes as well as increasing prices of commodities. In addition, the South African rand also continues to strengthen, and the oil prices also continue to increase.

The changes are affecting many markets in the country. For example, according to leading Forex brokers in SA, the price of the South African rand continues to be stronger due to the confidence in the country.

Increased business confidence

Experts say that one of the major reasons for the increased business confidence in the country is the recovery of the export. However, the Sacci also noted that unemployment continues to be among the biggest problems in the country, which must be addressed.

In addition to the business confidence index, the RMB/BER business confidence index was also published on Tuesday, which also showed an improvement in sentiment. The survey covered as many as 1300 people which were from manufacturing, retail, building, and many other sectors.

The results of the survey show that the confidence levels have picked drastically across all of the sectors. The RMB/BER has climbed from only 35 to 50 points, which is an outcome that has not been seen in many years. The business confidence is even higher than it was before the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, the report also notes that even if the improvements are noteworthy, there still are uncertainties that remain.