SACCI made this announcement on Thursday at the release of its Business Confidence Index (BCI) for December.

The chamber said the BCI declined by 3.1 index points from 82.7 in November to 79.6 in December, the lowest level for the BCI in 2015.

“The annual average of 86.4 for the BCI for 2015 is the lowest annual average since the average of 81.3 in 1993,” SACCI said in a statement.

SACCI said the downward pressure on the BCI mainly came from financial market sub-indices like share prices and the rand exchange rate, also noting that a slowdown in building plans being passed was a matter of concern.

SACCI also commented on the recent changes at the Treasury, saying the passive performance of the South African economy and its effect on the business mood was complicated by the changing of the guard when “it was least desirable”.

“However, SACCI believes the partly restored situation provides an opportunity to do a turnaround and ensure policy consistency in a difficult global and domestic economic environment,” SACCI said.

ANA