{"id":36780,"date":"2026-06-11T12:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T10:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36780"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T10:07:40","slug":"sa-business-confidence-edges-up-in-may-after-april-slump","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-business-confidence-edges-up-in-may-after-april-slump\/","title":{"rendered":"SA business confidence edges up in May after April slump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South African (SA) business confidence edged up in May after a sharp fall \u200bin April, as companies adjusted to \u200cthe oil price shock triggered by the Iran war and vehicle sales remained buoyant, data showed on \u200bThursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The SA Chamber of Commerce \u200band Industry&#8217;s Business Confidence Index rose \u2060to 124.1 in May from 123.6 in \u200bApril. It stood at 131.3 in March.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200bchamber, which releases the index every two months, said the modest recovery in May suggested some of \u200bthe negative sentiment triggered by the \u200bglobal surge in energy prices had begun to subside.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It \u200csaid \u2060gains were driven mainly by higher new vehicle sales and stronger merchandise export volumes, with imports also contributing to a lesser \u200bextent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A decline \u200bin overseas \u2060tourist arrivals had a substantial negative impact on the index, while \u200brising inflation was also a \u200bconcern \u2060for businesses.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Africa&#8217;s biggest economy started to pick up pace last year and expanded more than expected \u2060in \u200bthe first quarter of \u200b2026, but the Iran war has dampened the outlook \u200bfor growth.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-36780","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA business confidence edged up in May","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36780","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\/36780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36784,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36780\/revisions\/36784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}