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, 2025Q3

Date Uploaded: September 16 2025 09:00


According to the latest Absa Manufacturing Survey, business confidence in the factory sector declined sharply by ten points to 23 in 2025Q3. This follows a two-point decline in 2025Q1 and a one-point drop in Q2, suggesting that the pressure we saw in the sector in the first half of 2025 intensified in the third quarter. While there has been an improvement in the underlying activity and sales indicators, the recovery is not strong enough.