South Africa: Manufacturing production growth rises in January
Manufacturing production rose 1.1% month on month in seasonally adjusted terms in January, more than doubling December’s 0.5% increase. Looking at the details of the release, the upturn was largely due to an improvement in petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery output.
On an annual basis, manufacturing output fell at a more moderate pace of 3.7% in January (December: -4.5% yoy). The trend pointed down, nevertheless, with the annual average variation of manufacturing production coming in at minus 0.9% in January, down from December’s minus 0.3%.