Post-Zuma Euphoria Sends South African Confidence Off the Charts
- Consumer confidence index surged to 26 points in first quarter
- Index may have overshot on positive sentiment, FNB says
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South Africans are apparently so elated at the exit of Jacob Zuma as president that their confidence as consumers has made an unprecedented jump to an all-time high.
The 34-point move in First National Bank Ltd.’s index of consumers’ sentiment, to 26 in the first quarter, has outdone previous moments of satisfaction in recent history -- such as the end of apartheid and the country’s 1995 win at the Rugby World Cup. Confidence specifically among black consumers is near the record reached after the first multiracial elections in 1994.