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Johannesburg - South Africa's manufacturing output fell by 1.5% year-on-year in volume terms in April after a revised 1 percent expansion in March, Statistics SA said on Tuesday.
On a month-on-month basis, factory production increased by 3.5%, but was down 1.8% in the three months to April, compared with the previous three months.
Economists polled by Reuters forecast factory output contractions of 5.5% year-on-year, and 1.45% on a month-on-month basis.
SA's quarterly business confidence index was unchanged at 41 index points in the second quarter of the year.
This indicates that the majority of companies were still unhappy with operating conditions in SA, a survey showed.
The Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) survey, conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), has hovered around the 40 mark for over a year.
Manufacturing sentiment dropped to 2009 levels.
"The RMB/BER BCI remaining unchanged at a low 41 points may well be reflective of the economy already being in a technical recession," RMB said in a statement, adding, however, that GDP should still expand in 2014.
"If the services sector, coupled with agriculture and construction, more or less maintain their first quarter growth momentum, a return to more normal conditions in the platinum industry would give the economy a kicker in the second half of the year", said Ettienne le Roux, economist at RMB.
Platinum producers have been hit by a wage strike now five months old, which contributed to a contraction in GDP in the first quarter.
On a month-on-month basis, factory production increased by 3.5%, but was down 1.8% in the three months to April, compared with the previous three months.
Economists polled by Reuters forecast factory output contractions of 5.5% year-on-year, and 1.45% on a month-on-month basis.
SA's quarterly business confidence index was unchanged at 41 index points in the second quarter of the year.
This indicates that the majority of companies were still unhappy with operating conditions in SA, a survey showed.
The Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) survey, conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), has hovered around the 40 mark for over a year.
Manufacturing sentiment dropped to 2009 levels.
"The RMB/BER BCI remaining unchanged at a low 41 points may well be reflective of the economy already being in a technical recession," RMB said in a statement, adding, however, that GDP should still expand in 2014.
"If the services sector, coupled with agriculture and construction, more or less maintain their first quarter growth momentum, a return to more normal conditions in the platinum industry would give the economy a kicker in the second half of the year", said Ettienne le Roux, economist at RMB.
Platinum producers have been hit by a wage strike now five months old, which contributed to a contraction in GDP in the first quarter.
