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).

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Manufacturing Survey, 2023Q3

Date Uploaded: September 12 2023 09:00


After averaging a meagre 17 in the first half of 2023, manufacturing business confidence increased by 6 points to 23 in 2023Q3. While an improvement, this still implies that almost 8 out of 10 respondents were not satisfied with prevailing business conditions. In addition, the latest confidence reading was somewhat lower than during the corresponding period last year.