{"id":5545,"date":"2025-09-07T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/5545\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:53:14","slug":"us-tariffs-drive-down-sa-business-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/5545\/","title":{"rendered":"US tariffs drive down SA business confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/25USbusiness_21775ebfb1c4e50841e15d37f3eb92cc.jpg\" alt=\"25 U Sbusiness\" class=\"featimg--mobile\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The quarterly confidence index, published by Rand Merchant Bank in partnership with the Bureau of Economic Research, captured responses from businesses surveyed between August 6 and 25, a period that coincided with the implementation of steep 30% US tariffs on South African exports, the highest rate imposed on any sub-Saharan African nation.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing sectors, particularly automotive production, felt immediate pressure from the trade measures, with companies reporting both order cancellations and forced production suspensions as demand softened.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the challenging domestic conditions, RMB&#8217;s Chief Economist, Isaah Mhlanga, emphasised that South Africa&#8217;s business environment reflected broader global trends rather than isolated difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re witnessing the normalisation phase following last year&#8217;s wave of political and economic policy transformations across multiple countries, including South Africa. The initial reactions, whether optimistic or pessimistic, are settling into what appears to be a more challenging emerging world economic order,&#8221; Issah observes.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>However, competing data released simultaneously on Wednesday suggested modest gains in South African businesses\u2019 operating conditions throughout August, with companies benefiting from diminishing cost inflation pressures.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Financial markets offered additional encouragement as the rand climbed to its strongest position in nine months during late August trading. The currency&#8217;s rally was supported by US dollar weakness and a resurgence in gold prices, with investor sentiment bolstered by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell&#8217;s signals regarding potential interest rate reductions at September&#8217;s policy meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>(Picture: Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The quarterly confidence index, published by Rand Merchant Bank in partnership with the Bureau of Economic Research, captured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,6394,6396,113,61,60,6395,43,6397],"class_list":{"0":"post-5545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dealerfloor","10":"tag-dealership","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-motoring","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-vehicle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}