Manufacturing production has contracted more than expected with a 2,4% year-on-year decline in September after shrinking by 1,8% in the previous month.
The figure is worse than the 0.6 % decline market consensus.
Statistics South Africa says the main drag came from the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, metal products and machinery.
Senior economist at Absa Bank, Miyelani Maluleke says the figures doesn’t bode well for job creation in the country.
“The fact that we continue to see the sector falling as it is doing, is very worrying because government has identified manufacturing as one of the sectors that should be driving employment creation in SA. We are seeing the output number disappointing the way that they have … not just in September but in the first quarter as a whole … it suggests that in the near term those hopes that the sector will drive job growth, (will) diminish quite a bit. ”
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