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Johannesburg - The Gauteng economy continued to grow strongly in July, despite signs of economic growth levelling out both globally and in South Africa.
The Sake24 and BoE Private Clients latest Gauteng Barometer’s growth index rose 5.8% year on year in July. This equalled that in June.
The province’s growth index also rose a smart 1.3% on a three-month basis.
Apart from the massive contribution made by government expenditure to Gauteng and most other provinces’ economies, the manufacturing and trading indices had been the stars of the Gauteng economy.
Although the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for June and July was below 50 index points – indicating a decline in activity for the sector – the Gauteng manufacturing index grew 9% year on year compared with 8.6% in June.
On Wednesday the Bureau for Economic Research and Kagiso announced that the August PMI had again risen above 50 index points.
According to Kagiso’s Theo Vorster the improvement was especially owing to a rise in the sub-index for new sales orders, indicating that the demand for manufactured goods had recovered somewhat from the previous month.
In the second quarter of this year the manufacturing sector had contributed 1.1 percentage points to the 3.2% overall economic growth. This was also one of the sectors on which the Gauteng strongly depended.
Gauteng’s trade index was 6.1% up year on year.
Economists.co.za economist Mike Schüssler, who compiled the barometers, said Gauteng’s trade data looked fairly good.
Motor vehicle sales in Gauteng climbed 29.8% year on year and retail sales 5.2%.
