Richer households show biggest decline in consumer sentiment - survey | Business

South African consumer confidence plunged in the first quarter as intense power outages hamstrung economic activity and stoked food-price inflation. | News24_Business

A quarterly index measuring sentiment fell to -23 in the three months through March from -8 in the previous quarter, First National Bank said in an emailed statement Thursday. That’s the lowest level since the second quarter of 2022, when deadly floods wrought havoc in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province and the impact of the war in Ukraine started to manifest, the bank said.

South Africa is suffering from an energy crisis, with state utility Eskom implementing blackouts, known locally as load shedding, on all but one day this year. While the outages are needed to protect the grid from collapse when the company’s aging plants can’t meet demand, they’re sapping economic growth.

Rocked by the intensifying electricity crisis and cost-of-living concerns, the FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index plunged to -23 index points during 2023Q1, from -8 index points during 2022Q4.

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