Johannesburg - Business confidence increased in December
2011 after a tough eight months, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Sacci) said on Tuesday.
"Between November and December 2011, the Sacci Business
Confidence Index (BCI) increased meaningfully for the first time in 2011 since
its current decline began in April 2011," Sacci said in a statement.
The BCI increased by 1.7 index points from 97.4 in November
2011 to 99.1 in December 2011.
This was still 4.2 points below the December 2010 level and
far below the all-time high of 122.1 recorded in December 2006.
Sacci said the positive change in the BCI between November
2011 and December 2011 was due to 10 sub-indices making up the index being
either positive or unchanged.
Sacci warned that the state of the global economy would on
balance continue to negatively affect business confidence in 2012.
"Businesses face a difficult and uncertain environment
in the next 12 months, but domestic economic and sociopolitical stability
could assist in securing positive business sentiment," Sacci said.
South Africa's economic performance depends largely on
consumption expenditure by households and the general government.
"Sacci is concerned that the rate of fixed capital
spending is below what is needed to accumulate appropriate capital stock for
sustainable higher real economic growth."
Sacci said more effort to improve the business environment
at municipal level could be a good starting point in nurturing business
confidence.