South African manufacturing sentiment soured slightly in February as business activity weakened and employment declined.
Absa Group’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, slipped to 47.4 from 48.7 in January, the Johannesburg-based lender said in an emailed statement on Monday.
The decline reversed part of the prior month’s sharp gain and edged further below the neutral 50-point mark.
“This suggests that a possible rebound in production at the beginning of the year was not sustained,” Absa said. “The stop-start nature of manufacturing output, also evident in official data, is not conducive to longer-term capacity expansion, investment growth or employment gains.”
© 2026 Bloomberg
Follow Moneyweb’s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.
#South #African #factory #outlook #dims #business #activity #softens