Business confidence plumbs new lows
The SACCI Business Confidence Index (BCI) for June 2015 dropped by 2.3 index points to 84.6 in June 2015 from 86.9 in May 2015. This level is 5.1 points lower than in June 2014 and is the lowest level since the 83.9 of January 1999 – a sixteen-and-a-half year low. The BCI is now more than 37 index points below the high level of 121.9 recorded in December 2006 with 2010 serving as base year of 100. The average of 88.8 for the BCI over the first six months of 2015 was the lowest since the first half of 1999 when the BCI measured 86.2.
Consumer confidence plummets
Social unrest, political turmoil, frequent power outages and other economic headwinds have all combined to bring South African consumer sentiment to a 14,5-year low. Results from the 2Q2015 FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Survey show that consumer sentiment booked its largest drop since 2008 to reach a level of -15 in the second quarter. Consumer confidence had already declined from zero to -4 index points during the first quarter of 2015. The latest index number is not only far lower than the lowest reading recorded during the 2008/09 financial crisis and recession (-6), but it is also only the second time since South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 that the CCI has dropped below -12 index points.
