FX.co ★ South Africa Factory Activity Shrinks for 2nd Month

South Africa’s manufacturing output contracted by 1.4% year-on-year in December 2025, marking a third consecutive month of decline after a revised 2% drop in November. The main negative contributors were food and beverages (-4.6%, subtracting 1.4 percentage points), wood and wood products, paper, publishing, and printing (-5.2%, subtracting 0.6 percentage points), and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products, and machinery (-2.3%, subtracting 0.4 percentage points). On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing production fell by 1.2%, following a revised 2.1% decline in November. For the full year 2025, total manufacturing production decreased by 1.3% compared with 2024.