Mining, agriculture express muted optimism on economy

The negative expectations are mainly driven by dampened demand levels in international markets for commodities such as diamonds as well as geopolitical conflicts that have up-ticked the cost of inputs for enterprises.

The central bank’s Business Expectations Survey for the fourth quarter of last year showed that generally, firms maintained a grim outlook on the country’s economy, mainly due to the slow economic environment and unfavourable demand in international markets. The survey sampled responses from 100 businesses covering 13 sectors.