South African private sector activity picked up slightly in November, but output fell for the third straight month, hit by rotating power outages and port strikes, a survey showed on Monday.
The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for South Africa rose to 50.6 in November from 49.5 in October, above the 50.0 line that divides expansions into contractions activity.
The turnaround was largely due to an increase in new business volumes, with November data suggesting an increase in sales for the first time since August.
“Supply chains remained disrupted by load reduction (power outages) and recent strikes at Transnet, leading to further lengthening of delivery times. Delays also increased, encouraging a renewed expansion in the staffing levels,” said David Owen, an economist at S&P. World market intelligence.
Regular power cuts have been a nightmare for South African people and businesses for over a decade, but this year has been particularly bad as state-owned electric utility Eskom has struggled to keep lights on for longer periods. .
Half of all companies surveyed predicted that production would expand over the next year, amid expectations that the disruption from power outages would ease and price pressures would continue to weaken, the survey found.
