The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Sacci’s) Business Confidence Index (BCI) continued its gradual recovery in April, recording its fourth consecutive month-on-month improvement.
The BCI came in at 82.5 in April, 1.3 points higher than in March, but still 7.4 points below the BCI for April 2015.
Seven of the overall BCI subindices made positive month-on-month contributions, three were neutral and three made negative contributions.
Five real activity subindices and four financial subindices made positive month-on-month contributions or remained neutral.
The largest positive monthly contributions came from merchandise import volumes, the weighted rand exchange rate and manufacturing output.
On a year-on-year basis, ten of the BCI’s 13 subindices made negative contributions, with only two of the seven real activity subindices and one of the six financial subindices having made a positive year-on-year contribution.
The rand exchange rate, merchandise export volumes, share prices and new-vehicle sales made the largest negative year-on-year contributions.