SA Consumer Confidence leaped in the first quater of 2010
The consumer confidence index increased by nine points to 15 in the first quarter, the biggest quarter-on-quarter rise in five years, sponsors First National Bank (FNB) and the Bureau for Economist Research (BER) said.
Low domestic demand helped push the economy into its first recession in nearly two decades last year, hitting mostly the key mining and manufacturing sectors and leading to nearly 900,000 jobs being lost.
Although manufacturing is on the mend, domestic demand has generally lagged the recovery, leading some analysts to suggest the central bank might cut interest rates further to spur growth, on top of five percentage points of reductions between December 2008 and August last year.
South Africa's economy is expected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2010. Low interest rates, greater affordability, pent-up demand, as well as a degree of stability returning to the labour market could all have played a role in convincing more consumers to re-evaluate the appropriateness of the present time to buy durable goods.
