The Ctrack Transport and Freight Index (Ctrack TFI) declined for eight consecutive months to reach an index level of 112.8 in January 2025, the lowest since December 2022 and a declining streak resembling the strain experienced amid the Covid-19 pandemic, when the economy sagged into a deep recession. At this level the index is 5.0% below a year earlier and a notable 10.1% below the May 2024 print of 126.5, suggesting a significant U-turn in the latter months of 2024. The weakness in the logistics sector has been quite broad-based during 2024, resulting in the sector subtracting from overall economic growth. This is quite a disappointing performance as the transport sector has often in the past been an outperformer relative to the broader economy, but that trend had changed abruptly.
