Inflation hits five-year high but local businesses show a fighting spirit

Statistics South Africa released its latest consumer price index with inflation recorded at 6.5% in May 2022, up from 5.9% in April 2022. Despite this, all but four out of the 27 industries monitored by Skynamo’s Industry Thermometer bounced back with positive growth within the same month. This resulted it May being the top performing month in 2022 in terms of total order value.

Commenting on these results, Zane van Rooyen, Product Marketing Manager at Skynamo says that they would have been even better if external factors were more favourable. “The continued war in Ukraine as well as the strict COVID-19 lockdowns still in place in China are both affecting world trade channels of vital food as well as fuel supplies.”

This is reflected by the first two months of 2022 starting with huge promise as Skynamo’s data showed vast improvements to order volumes across the board. “That, however, didn’t last long due to the ramifications of supply disruptions coupled with news of the war against Ukraine which resulted in cautious buying trends similar to those experienced during the pandemic.This uncertainty and risk of over capitalising in an unknown market showed up across all industries with order values dropping while order numbers increased; a sure sign of cautious buying behaviours.”

“Call it resilience, call it learnings from COVID, or call it a will to overcome yet another global crisis, but May’s data shows a fighting spirit of upturned graphs and record order values,” says van Rooyen. “Skynamo customers seem to be using the data at hand and the extra time afforded from automating the sales processes to focus on making informed decisions that are clearly showing results. We salute the resilience of all our local small businesses and know that tapping into your entrepreneurial spirit will continue to yield positive results.”