South Africa: Manufacturing activity growth eases in December
Manufacturing output increased 0.1% in month-on-month seasonally adjusted terms in December, which followed November’s 1.4% increase. Looking at the details of the release, December’s sharp slowdown was largely driven by a fall in petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products output. In addition, production contracted in both the food and beverages, and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery sub-sectors.
On an annual basis, manufacturing output declined 4.7% in December, which was significantly greater than November’s 1.8% fall and marking the worst result since April. Accordingly, the trend pointed down, with the annual average variation of manufacturing production coming in at minus 0.3% in December, down from November’s flat reading.