South Africa CCI at All Time High

Consumer confidence in South Africa touched an all-time high in the first quarter of 2018, as positive political and economic developments made consumers much more willing to spend. AllAfrica reported. The consumer confidence index, sponsored by First National Bank and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, improved to +26 from -8 in the final quarter of 2017. “The extraordinary improvement in consumer sentiment during the first quarter of 2018 can largely be ascribed to the change in the country’s leadership, which triggered many positive economic developments,” said Mamello Matikinca, chief economist at First National Bank. Consumer confidence surged across all income and population groups in the period, the survey showed. South African retail sales rose 4.9% year-on-year in February after increasing by a revised 3.3% in January, data from the statistics office showed on Wednesday. Under new President Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African Treasury took the politically risky step of raising value-added tax for the first time in 25 years in bid to increase revenues and slash the budget deficit.