SA’s business fraternity will be eagerly watching the production-side economic data releases later this week as they are likely to provide an indication of how the economy’s second-quarter performance ended.
“Production is being curtailed by a myriad idiosyncratic factors ranging from persistent load-shedding, higher production costs, mining sector strikes and infrastructural bottlenecks at ports and SA’s rail network,” FNB economists Mamello Matikinca-Ngwenya, Siphamandla Mkhwanazi, Thanda Sithole and Koketso Mano wrote in a client note on Friday. “Global geopolitical tensions and tightening financial conditions remain a key risk for SA’s commodity export volumes.”..