SA business confidence index improves to 89.0 in August

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Business sentiment in South Africa recovered from a 15-year low in August, helped by the resolution of labour strikes and easing consumer price pressures, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (SACCI) business confidence index improved to 89.0 in August, from 87.9 in July.

SACCI said there were signals that business sentiment had bottomed out, but South Africa's key economic activities needed to perform strongly on a sustained basis for confidence to gather momentum.

"Sound institutions and a relative stable and predictable policy and investment environment are imperatives," SACCI said in a statement.

"Perhaps the slight uptick in SACCI's BCI could signal a change of direction."