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Person holding South African money.
The Rand Merchant Bank (RMB)/Bureau for Economic Research (BER) Business Confidence Index (BCI) has risen by five points to forty-four in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The improvement in business sentiment follows two consecutive declines.
This means that 44% of respondents including manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, are satisfied with prevailing business conditions.
Macroeconomist at RMB Bank Keabetswe Mojapelo says the results suggest that the economy is regaining some momentum after remaining subdued in the middle of the year.
“If you look at the survey itself, it was conducted around the 10th and 24th of November. If you remember prior to that, we had a lot of good news flowing into the economy. We had lifted off, S&P upgrade, we also had interest rate cuts, we also had a positive and well received MTBPS [Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement].”
“So, we had a confluence of all these factors that really boded well for the economy, and we could see that being represented in the survey itself,” explains Mojapelo.
