🔒 Covid-19 flattens business confidence as pessimism prevails – RMB’s Ettienne le Roux

South Africa’s Business Confidence dropped to an unprecedented low during the second quarter, the RMB/BER Index recording just 5 points out of the possible 100, the only time in its 45 years of measurement that it is in single digits. This surpasses the previous low of 12 points set in the depths of the 1977 and 1985 economic recessions. The index, measured quarterly, was already on a sharply declining trend before Covid-19 struck, falling from 26 in the final quarter of last year to 18 in the first three months of 2020. RMB chief economist Ettienne le Roux gives us more detail on the numbers. – Alec Hogg

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