JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s manufacturing production shrank 1.4% year-on-year in July, dragged lower by a decline in the production of petroleum and steel.
However, mining production ticked up 0.9% on an annual basis, despite the fall in the production of platinum group metals and iron ore during the period.
On a month-to-month basis, industrial production increased 1.5% in July compared with June, while on a monthly basis mining output shrank 0.4%. Annabel Bishop, a chief economist at Investec, said yesterday that manufacturing production in South Africa was proving to have even less of a link to the global economic upswing.