{"id":89181,"date":"2025-09-04T14:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T15:39:23","slug":"business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure","title":{"rendered":"Business Confidence Declines Amid Tariff Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>South African business confidence slipped a point further sequentially in the third quarter of 2025, weighed down by hefty US tariffs on the country&#8217;s exports, a survey showed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Business confidence fell to 39 points, three points below the long-term average level of 42, according to a survey by the Rand Merchant Bank and compiled by the Bureau of Economic Research.<\/p>\n<p>The survey, conducted from August 6-25, coincided with the start of the 30% tariff \u2014 Sub-Saharan Africa&#8217;s highest rate \u2014 on South Africa&#8217;s US exports and was also marked by cancellations and production breaks in the country&#8217;s automotive sector.<\/p>\n<p>But South Africa&#8217;s business experience in recent quarters was not out of line with other economies, according to Isaah Mhlanga, chief economist at RMB.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year brought significant political and economic policy changes in many countries, including South Africa, and after initial excitement, or in some cases, disappointment, conditions are normalising into a difficult emerging global world order,\u201d Mhlanga said.<\/p>\n<p>However, another survey published on Wednesday showed South African businesses experienced a very modest improvement in operating conditions in August as cost pressures eased.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, the rand hit a nine-month best level in late August, boosted by a weaker dollar and rebound in gold prices, after US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell pointed to a possible rate cut at the central bank&#8217;s September meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. South African business confidence slipped a point further sequentially in the third quarter of 2025, weighed down by hefty US tariffs on the country&#8217;s exports, a survey showed on Wednesday. Business confidence fell to 39 points, three points below the long-term average level of 42, according to a survey by the Rand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-89181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Business Confidence Declines Amid Tariff Pressure - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South African business confidence slipped a point further sequentially in the third quarter of 2025, weighed down by hef ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Confidence Declines Amid Tariff Pressure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South African business confidence slipped a point further sequentially in the third quarter of 2025, weighed down by hef ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-04T14:57:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-04T15:39:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1756987548.724597.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"669\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Business Confidence Declines Amid Tariff Pressure\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-04T14:57:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-04T15:39:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\"},\"wordCount\":244,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1756987548.724597.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/business-confidence-declines-amid-tariff-pressure\",\"name\":\"Business Confidence Declines Amid Tariff Pressure - 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