Johannesburg – Manufacturing business confidence plunged 18 index points to 29 in the second quarter‚ a Bureau for Economic Research (BER) manufacturing survey released on Friday shows.
This follows the release of weak manufacturing production figures on Thursday from Statistics SA.
This is the lowest level of manufacturing business confidence in two years‚ and indicates the extent to which manufacturers are losing confidence in current operating conditions.
BER economist Christelle Grobler said that although some specific trends warrant concern regarding the sustainability of the slow recovery in the manufacturing sector‚ the drop in confidence is somewhat sharper that expected.