ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Production expected to pick up with reliable power
Grounds for optimism after factories and mines enjoy more than 75 days without load-shedding
Negotiations on a coalition government will dominate economists’ minds. However, the suspension of load-shedding for more than 75 days running provides grounds for optimism. The last time SA had such a long suspension of load-shedding was from December 5 2021 to February 2 2022.
The Bureau for Economic Research (BER) at Stellenbosch University said April’s manufacturing and mining figures are keenly awaited to better understand how the absence of load-shedding affected production in the second quarter. BER economist Tracey-Lee Solomon said that in February manufacturing production surprised on the upside but disappointed in March, though the solid improvement in the April Absa purchasing managers’ index (PMI) boded well for manufacturing production. In April the Absa PMI jumped to 54 from 49.2 in March...
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