{"id":23280,"date":"2026-02-04T08:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-business-activity-stabilises-in-january-pmi-shows\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:06","slug":"sa-business-activity-stabilises-in-january-pmi-shows","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-business-activity-stabilises-in-january-pmi-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"SA business activity stabilises in January, PMI shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Africa’s (SA) private sector business conditions stabilised in January after a challenging end to 2025, as demand steadied and price pressures eased, a Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Global survey showed on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to a neutral 50.0 in January, up from 47.7 in December. PMI readings above 50.0 indicate growth, while those below denote contraction.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Output and new orders stabilised after a sharp drop in December, with companies noting a slight increase in new business volumes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, the services sector remained sluggish, and total exports continued to fall.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Input buying surged at the fastest rate in four months, though supply chain disruptions resulted in longer delivery times for the first time in 10 months.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Inflationary pressures eased, with overall input prices rising at their slowest pace in three months. A stronger rand also helped counteract higher salary costs, resulting in only a modest rise in selling prices.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SA’s local currency has gained more than 3% against the dollar so far this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Lower inflation, rising tourism and improved energy supply appear to have supported companies in their forecasts for 2026,” said David Owen, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Optimism about future demand persisted, buoyed by expectations of better economic conditions and increased tourism, even though confidence dipped to a three-month low.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15730,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23280","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"SA private sector business conditions stabilised in January","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26297,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23280\/revisions\/26297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}