FX.co ★ South Africa Manufacturing Logs Surprise Rebound

In May 2025, South Africa's manufacturing output experienced a growth of 0.5% year-on-year, signifying a notable recovery from the revised 6.4% decrease in April and effectively ending a six-month trend of decline. This improvement outperformed analysts' forecasts, who had predicted a 1.5% decrease. The primary driver of this growth was the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products, and machinery sector, which saw a robust increase of 4.3% (up from a decline of 6.5% in April), adding 0.9 percentage points to the total output. Further contributions came from the glass and non-metallic mineral products industry, which grew by 4.2% (up from 2%), the wood and wood products, paper, publishing, and printing sector, which increased by 3.1% (compared to a previous decline of 0.6%), and the textiles, clothing, leather, and footwear segment, which rose by 1.7% (up from a 4.3% decrease). On a seasonally adjusted monthly comparison, industrial output advanced by 2%, following a downwardly revised 1.7% rise in the prior month. However, manufacturing production declined slightly by 0.3% over the three months ending in May 2025, when matched against the preceding three-month period.