South Africa kisses over 1,500 businesses goodbye in 2023

[Nat Quinn]

South Africa kisses over 1,500 businesses goodbye in 2023

Data from Stats SA shows that 144 businesses closed their doors in November, pushing the total to over 1,500 companies that have shut their doors in 2023 so far.

According to Stats SA, 131 businesses closed down voluntarily, while 13 did so on a compulsory basis.

This means that 1,520 businesses have been liquidated since the start of the year. However, the number of liquidations actually decreased by 13.4% in October 2023 compared with October 2022.

In addition, the number of liquidations declined by 11.6% in the three months ending November 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.

Moreover, the total number of liquidations decreased by 13.3% % in November 2023 compared with November 2022.

Source: Stats SA

On a per-industry basis, the finance, insurance, real estate, and business services industry saw the most liquidations, with 44 in November. This took its yearly tally to 507 – the most of any industry.

This was followed by the Unclassified industry with 40 in November, trade, catering and accommodation (30), community, social and personal services (14).

Source: Stats SA

Difficult quarter

Despite the year-on-year decline in liquidations, several pieces of economic data showed that November was a tough month.

For instance, Mining output is down 1.3% year-to-date, even if it is less severe than the 7.1% decline seen in 2022.

Additionally, seven of the ten manufacturing divisions reported negative growth, with the largest negative contribution coming from the food and beverages division (-3.5% and contributing -0.8 of a percentage point).

“Strained global conditions and major domestic challenges affected the manufacturing sector activity and export potential during October.”

Naamsa added that the new vehicle market bore its most significant losses during November since the beginning of 2021, when the market was beginning its slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a positive note, after three months of increase, headline consumer inflation dropped in November. According to Stats SA, headline consumer inflation cooled to 5.5% in November from 5.9% in October.

The monthly decline was primarily driven by the 5.5% decrease in the fuel price index, which caused the annual rate for fuel to lower from 11.2% in October to 1.8% in November.

However, food and non-alcoholic beverages climbed to a four-month high of 9.0%, with meat inflation climbing by 0.1% to 3.5% in November.

“The outbreak of avian flu continued to disrupt the poultry market. The annual rate for IQF (individual quick frozen) chicken was 7.3% in November, up from 5.5% in October,” Stats SA said.

 

source:South Africa kisses over 1,500 businesses goodbye in 2023 – BusinessTech

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