South Africa’s business mood recovers – but now faces Ukraine war risks

A quarterly business confidence index compiled by FirstRand Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank unit and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research increased to 46 from 43 in the three months through December. That equals the index’s long-term average and “is a far cry from the 5-index-point low recorded at the height of the pandemic in 2020,” Johannesburg-based RMB said. The median of four economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 47.

The biggest boost to sentiment came from new-vehicle dealers. Sales in the first two months of the year have been buoyant and beat economists’ expectations in February. As the lion’s share of results for the survey were submitted before Russia invaded Ukraine and the oil price surged past $120 per barrel, the war is likely to weigh on future sentiment, the investment bank said.

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How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will impact South Africa’s property market: FNBWhile it is too early to say how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will impact South Africa’s property market in the long term, analysts at FNB have warned that the sector is likely to be hit by the obvious short-term economic factors, such as higher inflation rates and interest rate hikes.
Source: BusinessTechSA - 🏆 24. / 61 Read more »