Business confidence resilient - Sacci

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Johannesburg - Business confidence improved in August, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said on Thursday.

Releasing its latest business confidence index (BCI), Sacci said the improvement, despite events in the mining industry, reflected the resilience of South African business.

In August, the local business environment was dominated by the impact of protest activity at Lonmin's Marikana mine and the ensuing violence and intimidation which resulted in the deaths of 44 people.

The index rose by 4.1 points, from 90.9 in July to 95.0 in August.

It had dropped by 4.0 index points in July, compared to June's results.

However, the BCI for August was 3.6 points lower year on year.

“The diversity of the South African economy renders it less vulnerable to specific events in any sector, for instance mining,” Sacci said.

It remained concerned that while the sector was under severe operational and competitiveness pressures, mines were also burdened by militant labour behaviour. This undermined the sector's investment appeal.

The index's recovery during August was supported by a greater number of short-term improvements than in the previous month.

Only four sub-indices were negative on a monthly basis compared to six in July 2012.

On an annual basis, nine of the 13 sub-indices improved and four were negative.

The sub-indices representing the financial environment were balanced between being negative or positive on the business mood while the sub-indices for real economic activity were dominated by positive movements.

Only the building construction sub-index had contracted. - Sapa