The institute's annual RepTrak country survey of 27‚000 consumers in the Group of Eight (G-8) - which comprises Canada‚ France‚ Germany‚ Italy Japan‚ Russia‚ the UK and the US - offers a snapshot of perceptions of 50 markets.
A January to March survey had shown South Africa's reputation dropped to 46.78 points out of 100‚ from 47.56 points in January last year. This bucked a trend of a steady improvement in South Africa's reputation since January 2009.
In the survey conducted in August and September‚ South Africa's reputation improved to 51.24 points‚ which the institute said underlined the extent to which positive or negative events could affect reputation.
"The second study followed a period of relative stability in South Africa‚ marked by the absence of such negative events as Marikana or the shooting by Oscar Pistorius‚ both of which garnered widespread international attention during the period covered by the 2013 survey‚" the Reputation Institute's country manager for South Africa‚ Trevor Ndlazi‚ said.
Further contributing factors were the improvement of the health of former president Nelson Mandela‚ as well as a state visit by US President Barack Obama.
It cited South African respondents as being significantly more pessimistic than consumers in G-8 countries - at a rating of 33.69.
South African respondents viewed the country as doing well only in terms of being "a beautiful country" and an "enjoyable country"‚ while giving the country a rating of 18.51 for "valuing education'.
"This could point to a undue pessimism and overly harsh self-criticism‚" Ndlazi said.
The country with the best reputation in the survey was once again Canada‚ which scored 76.6‚ while Iraq came last with a score of 21.2.
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