JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s manufacturing output contracted by 4.1 percent year-on-year in April, much weaker than expected, after nudging up by a revised 0.4 percent in March, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast manufacturing volumes would contract by 1.6 percent year-on-year in April.

Factory production on a month-on-month basis expanded by 2.3 percent, but was down 0.3 percent in the three months to April compared with the previous three months.

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Joe Brock)