{"id":45736,"date":"2026-09-17T09:59:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45736"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:45:17","slug":"sas-consumer-confidence-rises-despite-economic-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-consumer-confidence-rises-despite-economic-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s consumer confidence rises despite economic uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">South Africa&#8217;s (SA) consumer confidence improved in the third quarter, a survey showed on Thursday, although consumer \u200bspending is expected to remain subdued in \u200cthe coming months due to uncertainty stemming from the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The consumer confidence index, sponsored by \u200bFirst National Bank (FNB) and compiled by the Bureau \u200bfor Economic Research, improved to minus 13 points \u2060from minus 19 in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Middle \u200bEast conflict, which is now in its seventh \u200bmonth, has put pressure on SA household budgets through higher fuel prices, uncertainty over interest rates and fears of inflation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Shoppers \u200bwill likely remain cost-conscious and prioritise necessities over \u200bdiscretionary spending in the run-up to the festive season, suggesting \u200cthat \u2060consumer spending growth will remain muted and that value-for-money retailers may outperform higher-end brands,&#8221; FNB Chief Economist Mamello Matikinca-Ngwenya said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The rebound in the quarter was largely \u200bdriven by stronger \u200bconfidence among \u2060lower-income households, which were more insulated from recent interest rate hikes and benefited \u200bfrom lower food inflation, the survey \u200bshowed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The interest \u2060rate hike announced by the central bank in May has disproportionately affected middle- and high-income consumers due \u2060to \u200ba greater exposure to formal sector \u200bbank credit and higher spend on durable goods purchases, Matikinca-Ngwenya added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44291,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-45736","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA consumer confidence improved in the third quarter","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45736","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\/45736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45739,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45736\/revisions\/45739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}