Indices

RMB/BER Business Confidence Index

The BER takes the percentage of respondents that rates prevailing conditions as satisfactory as indicator or proxy of business confidence. The composite RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) is the unweighted mean of five sectoral indices, namely that of manufactures, building contractors, retailers, wholesalers and new vehicle dealers. Business confidence can vary between 0 and 100, where 0 indicates an extreme lack of confidence, 50 neutrality and 100 extreme confidence. Click here for more information on how the BER’s business surveys are conducted.

Indices

Business Confidence Index

The BER takes the percentage of respondents that rates prevailing conditions as satisfactory as indicator or proxy of business confidence.

Consumer Confidence Index

Detailed data on consumer confidence is provided, disaggregated by income, LSM and population groups as well as per province.

Purchasing Managers' Index

The Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI™) compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER).

Building Confidence Index

The index can vary between zero (indicating an extreme lack of confidence) and 100 (indicating extreme confidence).

Civil Confidence Index

The FNB/BER Civil Confidence Index reflects the state of business conditions in the civil engineering industry.

RMB/BER Business Confidence Index Documents

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RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (Sectoral, Provincial and Composites), 2025Q1 (Excel)

Date Uploaded: March 05 2025 12:00

Following 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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