SA Economy Faces Bleak reality

As South African consumer sentiment crashed to its lowest level in more than three decades during the second quarter, the major deterioration in the country’s economic outlook is cause for huge concern. Having already slipped from -9 to -13 index points during the first quarter of 2022, the FNB/BER consumer confidence index plunged to -25 in the second quarter of 2022. The SARB’s Quarterly Bulletin showed a deceleration in the growth rate of real (so adjusted to remove the distorting effect of inflation) disposable income, which underpinned the lower recorded household consumption expenditure reading as rising fuel costs and increased blackouts start to bite down hard on the SA economy. Michael Avery is joined by Hugo Pienaar, Chief Economist at the Bureau of Economic Research; Mamello Matikinca, Chief Economist at FNB and Investec Chief Economist, Annabel BishoP