September 2022

15 September 2022 – While a recent survey found that a large proportion of South Africans struggled to afford three meals per day, food affordability would have been worse if farmers did not produce food as abundantly as they had in recent years. This was according to Prof André Jooste, chairperson of the National Agricultural […]

14 September 2022 – If inflation in South Africa doesn’t come back into the Reserve Bank’s (SARB) targets, price setters will build in higher prices, and demand for wages will go up – creating a price spiral, says the deputy governor of the SARB, Rashad Cassim. Speaking at a keynote address for the ACI Financial

13 September 2022 – T he confidence of South African manufacturers fell in the third quarter of this year, the latest quarterly Absa Manufacturing Survey has shown, with the index dropping two points to 26. The survey has an index that runs from zero (absolutely no confidence at all) to 100 (extreme confidence). “Although cost and stock

12 September 2022 – Trade is at the core of SA’s agricultural progress. But the past few months brought challenges in key markets such as China and the EU, threatening SA’s export activity. Fortunately, some of these challenges have now been resolved, and SA could see continuous exports, specifically to China. We now also have

9 September 2022 – South Africa will see a big decline in inbound shipments of computer desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets in the third quarter (3Q), research findings from the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed this week, pointing to stretched spending patterns on the back of high inflation and a weaker rand. Reports show that

8 September 2022 – South Africa’s current account unexpectedly swung to a deficit in the second quarter as imports outweighed exports and companies paid higher dividends. The balance on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, switched to an annualised deficit of 1.3% of gross domestic product, or R87 billion,

7 September 2022 – independent meteorologist, Johan van den Berg, who warned that “many dams are still very full after the previous two high-rainfall seasons, and therefore the [potential for] flood damage is concerning”. “I am particularly concerned that the lower Vaal and Orange rivers could [burst their banks],” he told Farmer’s Weekly. Van den Berg

6 September 2022 – This year’s citrus season is yet another extraordinary one. “We were expecting fewer oranges from South Africa, but no one thought it would be this much less. In recent weeks, only 50% of last year’s volumes have consistently been sent to Europe. That’s too great a difference, so prices have shot

5 September 2022 – While farmers who managed to get good yields, they would be in a somewhat better financial position, as grain users-consumers and the livestock and poultry industries- would likely experience increased costs over the foreseeable future (although better than levels seen during the first half of the year), says Agbiz chief economist

2 September 2022 – South Africa’s move to curb imports while it is unable to produce a wide variety of products will negatively impact its ability to trade. According to the latest rankings by Harvard Universities’ Growth Lab, looking at the economic complexities of countries around the world, South Africa now ranks 70th. In 2000