Pretoria - Manufacturing production for July fell by 13.7 percent compared with July 2008, Statistics South Africa announced on Thursday.
The decrease has been attributed to lower production in the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery division (-24.4 percent and contributing -5.5 percent).
The petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products division (-10.2 percent and contributing -2.5 percent) and motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment division (-22.1 and contributing -2.3 percent) also contributed to the decrease.
Standard Bank economist Danelee van Dyk, who had predicted a 16.3 percent contraction, said she had been pleasantly surprised.
"This shows that the recovery is broad-based among the sectors with eight of the ten sectors reporting an increase relative to June," she said.
Van Dyk added that the data placed the sectors on a positive footing to restore economic growth in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, StatsSA said mining production for July increased by 4.8 compared to July last year.
"Mining production for July 2009 increased by 4.8 percent compared with July 2008, reflected by a 6.7 percent increase in the production of non-gold minerals."
Commenting on this data, Van Dyk said the data showed that the economy had reached its lower turning point and that this confirmed a positive growth rate in the third quarter.
