South Africa Manufacturing

Manufacturing production returns to growth in May

Latest reading: Manufacturing production increased 1.1% in seasonally adjusted month-on-month terms in May, following a 2.6% fall in the previous month. Relative to the prior month's figures, readings in May improved for petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products (+4.0% on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis vs +0.1% in April), food and beverages (-0.6% vs -3.6% in April) and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery (+1.6% vs -4.6% in April). In contrast, the reading for wood and wood products, paper, publishing and printing softened in May (0.0% vs +1.8% in April). In annual terms, manufacturing output declined 4.3% in May, following a 2.9% decline in the prior 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 4 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.