AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Business confidence in the agricultural sector remains subdued despite showing some slight recovery in the second quarter of 2016.
The Agbiz/IDC Confidence Index recovered by four index points to rise to 47 in the previous quarter.
An index below 50 indicates a contraction in agribusiness, thus a 47 index point suggests that agribusinesses are still pessimistic about business conditions in the country.
According to Agbiz, there has been a steady decline in confidence levels since the second quarter of 2014 which had an index of over 65 points.
Low and declining confidence levels could, in part, be attributed to the impact of the drought on the farming sector.
But the latest results showed that perceptions of agribusiness have improved in the majority of sub-indices except export volumes and economic growth prospects, according to Agbiz.
