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The BER takes the percentage of respondents that rates prevailing conditions as satisfactory as indicator or proxy of business confidence.
Detailed data on consumer confidence is provided, disaggregated by income, LSM and population groups as well as per province.
The Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI™) compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER).
The index can vary between zero (indicating an extreme lack of confidence) and 100 (indicating extreme confidence).
The FNB/BER Civil Confidence Index reflects the state of business conditions in the civil engineering industry.
The RMB/BER Business Confidence index (BCI) declined by five points to 40 in the second quarter of 2025, after the recovery that started in the first half of 2024 stalled in the first quarter. This implies that only four out of ten business respondents in the most cyclically sensitive sectors of the economy were satisfied with prevailing business conditions.
Read MoreFollowing three consecutive increases, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) remained unchanged at 45 index points in the first quarter of 2025. While a touch above the long-term average reading of 43 points, and well above the sentiment level recorded at the start of last year, it is worrying that four of the five sectors saw confidence slip relative to the fourth quarter of last year. New vehicle dealers saw a 29-point surge in confidence, which offset the decline in confidence from all other sectors.
Read MoreFollowing three consecutive increases, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) remained unchanged at 45 index points in the first quarter of 2025. While a touch above the long-term average reading of 43 points, and well above the sentiment level recorded at the start of last year, it is worrying that four of the five sectors saw confidence slip relative to the fourth quarter of last year. New vehicle dealers saw a 29-point surge in confidence, which offset the decline in confidence from all other sectors.
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