Mining races ahead but factory output records its ninth consecutive month of declines
A worker wearing a protective mask uses a table saw to cut a sheet of plastic to be fabricated into a plexiglass. Picture: DAVID PAUL MORRIS / BLOOMBERG
But the data — which has been delayed as Stats SA has been hampered in conducting its survey work during the lockdown — does not cover the actual lockdown period, which began at the end of March. Manufacturing production fell 2.1% year on year in February, but this was slower than market expectations where the prediction was for a 2.8% decline. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the decline was sharper, falling 2.3%, well down from January’s 3% growth
“We must vasbyt because I think some of the April data is going to look a bit nasty when it starts coming out,” Packirisamy told Business Day. The sector was already on the back foot, said Nedbank economists Nicky Weimar and Busisiwe Radebe, and “outlook for manufacturing production remains quite bleak for the remainder of the year due to the devastating effect of the coronavirus on the world economy”.
“The annual increase can be ascribed to a combination of base effects, as mining production decreased by 7.5% year on year in February 2019, as well as favourable commodity prices incentivising miners to increase extraction in high-cost areas of their mines,” FNB economist Geoff Nölting said in a statement on the figures.
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