South Africa Business Confidence Stays Subdued on Policy Delays

(Bloomberg) --

South African business confidence remained close to a three-decade low in November as companies continue to await decisive action by the government to revive the economy.

A sentiment index compiled by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry rose to 92.7 from 91.7 in the previous month, the business group said in an emailed statement Thursday.

Key Insights

• Africa's most-industrialized economy contracted in the third quarter as output in agriculture, mining and manufacturing dropped. Low business confidence also continued to weigh on fixed investment spending as private-sector companies are wary to commit large sums of money to projects.
• While President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged to revive the economy, gross domestic product has now contracted for four of the seven quarters since he came to power and the chamber said there are structural bottlenecks that have to be removed before economic growth can reach its potential.
• “The difficulty in decision making aimed at the inevitable structural adjustments necessary to let the economy perform better, are still lacking,” Sacci said. “The effect of indecisiveness and the time lapses to taking action are going to impact critically on the economy and therefore business and investor confidence as year-end approaches.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rene Vollgraaff in Johannesburg at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Gordon Bell, Alastair Reed

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