Business.co.za

State of South African Business

October 2026

The economy, what South African business news covered, what the directory holds and what people looked for — counted, not estimated. This month is still running: figures are month to date.

7.25%Repo ratefrom 25 Sep 2026 · South African Reserve Bank
4.4%Inflation (CPI)August 2026 · Stats SA
33.6%UnemploymentQ2 2026 · Stats SA
-0.2%GDP growthQ2 2026 · Stats SA
956business stories read12 publishers
10 060businesses on the directory388 verified · 9 provinces

1. The economy

IndicatorLatestBeforePeriodSource
Repo rate7.25%7%from 25 Sep 2026South African Reserve Bank
Prime lending rate10.75%10.5%from 25 Sep 2026South African Reserve Bank
Inflation (CPI)4.4%4.3%August 2026Stats SA
Petrol 95 (inland)R30.25/lR26.92/lOctober 2026Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Unemployment33.6%32.7%Q2 2026Stats SA
GDP growth-0.2%0.4%Q2 2026Stats SA
Rand / US dollarR16.58R16.4915 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API
Rand / euroR18.54R18.4615 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API
Rand / poundR21.93R21.8515 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API

2. What the news covered

956 stories from 12 South African publishers so far this month. Each headline and teaser was read for the industries it concerns and the companies and institutions it names.

Industries and services most covered

  1. Investments34 stories · 10 publishers
  2. Government32 stories · 10 publishers
  3. Funding32 stories · 10 publishers
  4. Infrastructure25 stories · 8 publishers
  5. Food20 stories · 8 publishers
  6. Security20 stories · 8 publishers
  7. Awards20 stories · 6 publishers
  8. Energy20 stories · 8 publishers
  9. Energy20 stories · 8 publishers
  10. Finance17 stories · 10 publishers
  11. Win16 stories · 7 publishers
  12. Cybersecurity15 stories · 7 publishers

Our news desk began reading on 1 October 2026, so this month is not compared with the one before.

Most named companies, institutions and places

AI 119Cape Town 17JSE 16Johannesburg 12Eskom 12Western Cape 11FNB 10IMF 10China 9SMEs 8El Niño 8IPO 8Microsoft 7Botswana 6Capitec 6

Recurring subjects

cape town 24artificial intelligence 16western cape 16eastern cape 9bitcoin corporation 7competition commission 7cyber security 7driving licence 6petrol prices 6dairy farmers 6cyril ramaphosa 6home affairs 6

3. The directory

10 060 businesses listed, across 9 provinces. 2 were listed by their owners so far this month (8 the month before), and 0 owners asked to claim a listing built from public sources.

By province

  1. Gauteng4 393
  2. Western Cape2 301
  3. KwaZulu-Natal682
  4. Eastern Cape222
  5. Mpumalanga100
  6. Limpopo100
  7. Free State96
  8. North West91
  9. Northern Cape33

4. What people looked for

20 searches, 1 question put to the pros and 1 answer so far this month.

  1. Accounting4 searches

Method and sources

  • Economic indicators are reproduced from the South African Reserve Bank, Statistics South Africa, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and ExchangeRate-API, as named on each row.
  • News counts cover the headlines and RSS teasers of the publishers on our news page; a topic is counted when it appears in at least three stories from two publishers.
  • Directory counts are businesses listed on Business.co.za, excluding quarantined listings. Listings built from public sources are not counted as new in any month.
  • Search demand is counted only where a search names a trade and three or more searches were made.
Cite this reportBusiness.co.za (2026). State of South African Business, October 2026. https://www.business.co.za/report/2026-10 (accessed 15 October 2026).Licence CC BY 4.0. The underlying data: open data.