The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (SACCI’s) latest Trade Conditions Survey for December points to ongoing pressure on the back of a subdued domestic economy. However, the majority of respondents also expected trade conditions to improve during the first half of 2026.

The survey results indicate that the trade climate deteriorated in December, with 60% of the respondents experiencing limited trade activities. 

Nevertheless, close to 70% of the respondents to the December 2025 Trade Survey expected trade conditions to improve over the next six months.

“Expectations on all elements of trade, except for input prices, contributed to the positive expectations on the trade environment six months from now,” SACCI noted, with the other elements including sales volumes, new orders, supplier deliveries, inventory levels and employment.

However, SACCI noted in its commentary that there appeared to be a broadening gap between current new orders and expectations on sales volumes, with current constrained new orders failing to match the higher sales expectations.

It also said that changes to global trade relations were filtering through and had become a matter of urgency.

“It appears that actions to diverge South Africa’s foreign trade are a bigger challenge that involves quality, logistic bottlenecks, competitive prices and consistency of supply to markets.”

Given the tight and varying trade conditions, survey respondents indicated that they employed more temporary staff in December and no additional employment was expected in the next six months.