South Africa December Factory Output Slows, Signals Weak Demand
- Monthly output fell 1.7%; median estimate was 0.4% rise
- Data unlikely to have meaningful impact on fourth quarter GDP
A production line in Cape Town.
Photographer: Redger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images
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South African manufacturing production underwhelmed in December, but it is unlikely to have a meaningful bearing on fourth quarter economic growth after the previous month’s figure was revised higher.
Output rose 0.7% from a year earlier, compared with an an upwardly revised 2.5% in November, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Thursday in a report published on its website. On a month-on-month basis it contracted 1.7%. Both readings were less than analysts had expected. Their median estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for a year-on-year increase of 2.7% and a monthly gain of 0.4%.