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The BER will host its annual conference in Sandton, Johannesburg on the 6th of May 2024. The details of this full day event will be shared with Clients and registered website users and on Social media soon. Notifications to register will be sent via the website alerts system to all users. Contact us for more information
MARKETS AND BANKING IN AN ERA OF GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY: The Bureau For Economic Research at Stellenbosch recently hosted a seminar on “Markets and banking in an era of global uncertainty” on February 28th, 2025 in Stellenbosch. The seminar is part of a series of events being hosted to mark the centenary of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Participants of the event were Sir David Ramsden, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, former Chief Economist of the UK Treasury and Isaah Mhlanga, Chief Economist, Rand Merchant Bank. The event was facilitated By Dr Roy Havemann, Head of the Impumelelo Economic Growth Lab at the BER.
RESEARCH NOTE: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended that South Africa adopt fiscal rules, and the National Treasury has committed to a process of consultations on fiscal rules, and to release a discussion by the end of March 2025. This research note explores what fiscal rules are and whether they could improve South Africa’s fiscal sustainability and fiscal credibility. It highlights guiding principles and considerations for fiscal rule design and outlines a possible fiscal rule to initially stabilise debt followed by a debt reduction phase.
22.09/litre
21.30/litre
3.2% y-o-y
0.7%
0.9% y-o-y
11.00 %
7.0% y-o-y
-3.3% y-o-y
The FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) plunged from -6 to -20 index points during the first quarter of 2025 as tax shock rocks consumer sentiment.
Retailer confidence declined marginally from 54% to 50% in the first quarter. This suggests a slowdown in positive momentum, but confidence still remains 10 percentage points (%pts) above the long-term average.
Despite the absence of load-shedding through most of 2024, the economy is unlikely to have grown faster than 1% last year. The outlook for 2025 is more positive, with some cyclical support set to push real growth to about 2%. Still, we have made a slight downward revision to our growth forecast for 2025. While local growth dynamics are important, this is, to some extent, overshadowed by the uncertainty coming from the global political landscape.
Read our latest economic forecast.
The release calendar will be updated each quarter. Please note that these dates may change.
Wednesday
5 March 2025
RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI)
Monday
10 March 2025
FNB/BER Building Confidence Index
Tuesday
18 March 2025
Absa Manufacturing Survey
Tuesday
25 March 2025
FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index (CCI)
Friday
14 March 2025
Other Services Survey
Monday
24 March 2025
Retail Survey
Thursday
27 March 2025
FNB/BER Civil Confidence Index
Monday
17 March 2025
Inflation Expectations Survey
Thursday
3 April 2025
Building Cost Report (BCIS)
The first working day of each month
Absa PMI
The first working day of each month
Update
The first week of each month
Trends
Every Friday
BER Weekly
The BER Economist Internship Programme provides practical training to appropriately qualified previously disadvantaged individuals. The programme equips trainees to function as economists in the private and/or the public sector.
