The latest First National Bank (FNB)/Bureau for Economic Research Civil Confidence Index remained unchanged at 43% in the second quarter of this year.
This index gauges the sentiment and economic health of South Africa’s civil engineering and construction sector.
FNB highlights that the outlook improved slightly, with fewer businesses saying they were struggling to secure new orders, pointing to a modest improvement in demand, and despite sharply weaker activity, overall profitability remained relatively high, which contributed to the improved sentiment.
However, the current reading also means that more than 55% of respondents were dissatisfied with prevailing business conditions.
Further, the index measuring activity growth deteriorated for the second consecutive quarter but remained above the long-run average.
