iLembe economy holds firm despite business sentiment dip
While business sentiment in Ilembe slightly dropped in the
first six month so this year, there was some solid economic performance for the
district.
The strong economic activity was supported by sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and assembly, construction, and property development.
However, the iLembe Chamber of Commerce’s biannual Business Confidence Index shows sentiment dipped below the 50-point mark to 47.4%.
Cobus Oelofse is the chamber's CEO.
"Sentiment is such an important element in determining investment decisions. And one of the things that we always find is that the sentiment tends to be a bit more negative and lower than the actual economic activity within our region.
"The negative sentiments mostly relate to the buildup to the US import tariffs that have been imposed. There's also some very specific local and district issues around political leadership, instability around political leadership that probably dictated the negative sentiment."
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Oelofse expects minimal impact from the 30% tariffs imposed on exports to the US.
" Our automotive component, like Hesto Harnesses that is very, very active in the auto component manufacturing sector, as well as people like KIC, one of the biggest refrigeration manufacturers in the country that are based in Isthebe - their exposure to the US market is quite limited, they mostly deal with the European Union and other African economies. Their exposure to the US market is not significant that it would have a direct impact."
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