Business confidence in South Africa: how a 70-year-old survey has given early signals of the economy’s pulse

By Johann Kirsten, Director of the Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch University
Lisette IJssel de Schepper, Chief Economist Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch University

Business tendency surveys provide very useful indicators of trends within an economy. The information is available well before the official statistics, such as GDP growth, and provides insights into business dynamics that cannot be found elsewhere.

For 70 years the Bureau for Economic Research at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University has been conducting business tendency…

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