There was some light relief for South Africa’s business community today after the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) announced a slight increase in its business confidence index in November.

SACCI said its business confidence index (BCI) improved by 2.5 index points last month to 86.7 points, a vast improvement on the 5.7 point decline recorded in October.

“The increase in the BCI in November 2008 may suggest that the impact of the global financial instability on the South African economy may be perceived to have eased,” said the Chamber in its report.

The sharp decline witnessed in October was largely in reaction to the turmoil in global financial markets with the collapse of a string of high profile finance institutions in the US and Europe, however SACCI said the ongoing volatility in global markets would likely keep confidence under pressure in the short to medium term.

“Market conditions have recently started to respond positively to policy actions, but the latent financial stress might be more severe than envisaged in earlier economic forecasts,” the Chamber added.