South Africa Manufacturing Production Shrinks 0.7%

(RTTNews) - South Africa's manufacturing output contracted in July after expanding in the previous two months, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Thursday.

Manufacturing production dropped 0.7 percent year-over-year in July, reversing a 1.9 percent growth in June.

The largest negative contributions were made by the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery division, and the wood and wood products, paper, publishing, and printing division, the agency said.

On a monthly basis, manufacturing production fell 0.5 percent versus a 0.4 percent increase in June.