South Africa Manufacturing

Manufacturing production shrinks in April

Latest reading: Manufacturing production was down 2.7% in seasonally adjusted month-on-month terms in April, following a 1.2% rise in the previous month. April's reading was the weakest since May 2024. Relative to the previous month's data, readings in April softened for petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products (-2.1% in seasonally adjusted month-on-month terms vs -0.4% in March), food and beverages (-3.1% vs +2.0% in March) and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery (-4.3% vs +2.1% in March). In contrast, the reading for wood and wood products, paper, publishing and printing improved in April (+2.1% vs -2.2% in March). In annual terms, manufacturing output fell 2.9% in April, following a 1.5% rise in the previous month.

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects South African manufacturing projections for the next ten years from a panel of 3 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable manufacturing forecast available for South African manufacturing.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our South African manufacturing projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of South African manufacturing forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.