South Africa’s manufacturing production declined for the second straight month in May, defying economists’ expectations for an increase, preliminary figures from Statistics South Africa showed Thursday.
Manufacturing production fell 1.4 percent year-over-year in May, but slower than April’s 2.1 percent decrease, which was revised from 2.0 percent drop. Economists had forecast a 1.0 percent gain for the month.
The decline in May was largely driven by the lower production of basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery that plunged by 5.8 percent from the previous year. Petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products output also logged a decrease of 4.6 percent.
Month-on-month, manufacturing production slipped a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in May, just below economists expectations for a 0.5 percent fall.
In the three-month period to May, total manufacturing output contracted 0.3 percent compared with the previous three months.
Manufacturing sales grew 3.3 percent annually in May and rose 2.4 percent from the preceding month.
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