South Africa’s (SA) consumer confidence improved in the first quarter, a survey showed on Tuesday, \u200bhelped by a rebound among higher-income households, \u200calthough the report warned the Middle East war could weigh on sentiment in the coming months.<\/p>\n
The consumer confidence \u200bindex, sponsored by First National Bank (FNB) and \u200bcompiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, \u2060improved to a minus seven points from minus \u200b9 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the ripple effects from \u200bthe Iranian war may well see a U-turn in high- and middle-income confidence during the second quarter,\u201d said FNB \u200bChief Economist Mamello Matikinca-Ngwenya.<\/p>\n
SA’s central bank \u200bis due to announce its interest rate decision on Thursday, as it \u200cweighs \u2060the impact a weak stock market, falling rand and surging oil prices could have on the economy.<\/p>\n
The first-quarter survey, which was conducted before the \u200bconflict started \u200bin late \u2060February, showed improved confidence among high-income households supported by lower interest \u200brates, soaring stock prices and a stronger \u200brand \u2060exchange rate.<\/p>\n
However, confidence among low-income households deteriorated further from the previous quarter, due to disappointing employment \u2060growth \u200btowards the end of 2025 \u200band tighter compliance measures in the social grant system.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13481,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-29764","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA's central bank \u200bis due to announce its interest rate decision on Thursday,","published_date":"","news_description":"SA's central bank \u200bis due to announce its interest rate decision on Thursday,","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29764","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\/29764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29768,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29764\/revisions\/29768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}