Events beyond normal economic activity and business matters disrupted the turnaround in the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) Business Confidence Index (BCI) in June and July, with the BCI falling by 3.1 points month-on-month to 92.9.
The BCI was also 4.7 points lower than in August 2015.
There was more negativity in the real business environment in August than in July with five of the seven real subindices either declining or remaining unchanged month-on-month.
The month-on-month financial climate also became more uncertain with five of the six financial subindices remaining unchanged or declining in August.
What benign monthly positive contributions to the BCI did present, came from the number of new vehicles sold and consumer inflation excluding petrol, food and nonalcoholic beverages.
Merchandise export and import volumes, and real retail sales had the largest negative month-on-month effects in August.
The year-on-year comparison suggests an even tighter economic and business climate as eleven of the thirteen subindices were in the red.
The largest negative year-on-year contribution to the BCI came from merchandise import volumes, followed by merchandise export volumes and real financing costs. A marginal positive impact to the business climate came from US dollar gold and platinum prices, and manufacturing output.