Manufacturing output underperforms in October

South Africa’s manufacturing output delivered a surprise contraction in October, well below the market expectations of a 0.7% to 0.8% increase, indicating that economic activity remains weak and underlying confidence fragile. New data released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday show a seasonally adjusted manufacturing production decline of 2.7% year-on-year and a 1.9% month-on-month decrease during October, compared with the revised year-on-year uptick of 0.2% in September.