Absa Manufacturing Survey

Inflation expectations
Manufacturing
Retail
Other services
Building and construction

Absa Manufacturing Survey

The Absa Manufacturing Survey is a brisk quarterly report on the results and implications of the latest BER survey of manufacturing firms. Released in advance of official indicators of activity, it provides reliable and up-to-date information on current trends and valuable perspectives on the outlook for the sector.

Apart from business confidence, the survey data highlights current and expected trends in business conditions, domestic as well as export sales volumes, production volumes, the number of factory workers, input costs and selling prices, fixed investment and stock levels.

The survey covers the various important manufacturing subsectors as well as the main provinces (Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng).

Back to Documents

Manufacturing Survey, 2023Q2

Date Uploaded: June 14 2023 07:00


Following a nine-point drop in Q1, the latest Absa Manufacturing Survey shows that manufacturing business confidence remained unchanged at 17 points in 2023Q2. While not as poor as the record-low 5 points reached during the strictest time of SA’s COVID-19 lockdown in 2020Q2, the current level is less than half of the long-term average level of 39.