South Africas manufacturing sector improved slightly in March but it is still struggling overall according to the latest Absa Purchasing Managers Index PMI released by the Bureau for Economic Research.
The PMI a monthly survey that shows how factories are performing rose from 47.4 in February to 49 in March. Any number below 50 means the sector is still shrinking, so this small increase does not yet reflect a real recovery.
The headline number went up because factory output business activity improved marginally, from 45.7 to 46.1. However, factories were still producing less than the month before, but the drop slowed slightly. Supplier deliveries also slowed sharply pointing to logistics bottlenecks.
