In South Africa, the early Q2 activity prints, ie, the April PMIs and car sales data, released this week were rather mixed, pointing to a broadly choppy start to the second quarter. The manufacturing PMI printed in contractionary territory for the third consecutive month coming in at 45.4, well below consensus of 47.6. The underlying details showed weaknesses across a number of areas including output and new sales orders, both of which contracted sharply in April. In contrast, the Markit whole-economy PMI for April came in relatively strongly at 51.5, broadly unchanged from the March print of 51.6. The sub-component data of the whole economy also diverged notably from the manufacturing PMI, showing that output and new sales orders continuing to grow. The two surveys are of course different with the Markit PMI expanding coverage beyond the factory sector to include the services sector. As such, the divergent moves could be an indication that the electricity blackouts in April weighed more on the factory sector while the services sector proved somewhat resilient
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