Johannesburg - Business confidence in South Africa fell
again in September after a rebound the previous month, weighed down by a wave
of mostly illegal strikes that have hit the mining sector in particular.
The Business Confidence Index (BCI) shed 3.3 points to 91.7
in September, not far off a 12-month low of 90.9 reached in July, data from the
South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) showed on Wednesday.
“Recent developments in the domestic labour market weighed
heavily on the BCI,” Sacci said in a statement, alluding to strikes by as many
as 75 000 miners that have hit platinum and gold mining firms and further
threatened the country’s shaky growth prospects.
The business grouping was also concerned about Moody’s
downgrade of South African debt last week and its drop by two positions in the
2012/2013 World Economic Forum competitiveness rankings.
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