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
987business 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 dollarR16.52R16.5816 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API
Rand / euroR18.53R18.5416 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API
Rand / poundR21.91R21.9316 Oct 2026ExchangeRate-API

2. What the news covered

987 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. Investments37 stories · 10 publishers
  2. Funding35 stories · 10 publishers
  3. Government32 stories · 10 publishers
  4. Infrastructure25 stories · 8 publishers
  5. Energy22 stories · 8 publishers
  6. Energy22 stories · 8 publishers
  7. Food21 stories · 8 publishers
  8. Security21 stories · 8 publishers
  9. Awards20 stories · 6 publishers
  10. Finance17 stories · 10 publishers
  11. Property16 stories · 9 publishers
  12. Win16 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 123Cape Town 18JSE 17Johannesburg 13Eskom 12Western Cape 11IMF 10FNB 10China 9El Niño 8IPO 8SMEs 8Microsoft 7Eastern Cape 6Capitec 6

Recurring subjects

cape town 25western cape 16artificial intelligence 15eastern cape 9competition commission 8bitcoin corporation 7standard bank 7cyber security 7home affairs 6middle east 6dairy farmers 6driving licence 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

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

  1. Accounting5 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 16 October 2026).Licence CC BY 4.0. The underlying data: open data.