South African business sentiment unexpectedly fell in the fourth quarter as subdued demand sent new-vehicle dealers’ confidence to the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic.

A quarterly business confidence index compiled by FirstRand Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank unit and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research declined to 31 in the three months through December from 33 in the prior quarter, according to a report published on Tuesday. The median of four economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 37.