After having ended the third quarter on a downbeat note, the Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) also had a poor start to the fourth quarter, with the index having dropped to 45.4 points in October, from an upwardly revised 46.21 points in September. In terms of the major subindices of the headline PMI, the biggest drag came from the seasonally adjusted business activity index, which declined by a further 2.8 points to a lowly 40.3.
