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SA's economic growth slows
August 30, 2011--South Africa’s economic growth slowed to 1.3% in the second quarter of 2011 on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis, compared with a downwardly revised 4.5% expansion in Q1, data showed on Tuesday.
On an unadjusted year-on-year basis, the economy expanded by 3.0% from 3.5% in the first quarter.
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Source: FIN24
SA stocks go into orbit
August 29, 2011-- South African stocks went into orbit on Monday, tracking stronger global equity and commodity prices, and rising over 3% the highest intra-day rise in nearly three weeks.
The rand also advanced to a three-week high, gaining on a defensive dollar as risky assets enjoyed positive investor sentiment after the Federal Reserve left open the possibility of further monetary stimulus in the United States.
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Source: FIN24
Bonds remain on firm footing
August 29, 2011--South African bonds retained their firmer bias in late trade on Monday, tracking the strong local currency.
By 15:50, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 6.535% from 6.585% at the previous close. The R207 was bid at 7.695% and offered at 7.665% from 7.705% and the R186 was trading at 7.910% from 7.965%
The rand was bid at 7.0533 against the dollar from its previous close of 7.1338.
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Source: FIN24
Treasury to apply twin peaks bank rules
August 29, 2011--The period for comment on the National Treasury's "twin peaks" model of financial regulation has expired and the proposals set out in the department's policy document released in February are being implemented, Ingrid Goodspeed, the Treasury's chief director of financial inclusion and market conduct, said on Monday.
Goodspeed was addressing delegates at a conference of the Compliance Institute of SA.
The twin peak model aims to improve the local financial sector's regulatory framework, where the SA Reserve Bank would act as the prudential supervisor while the Financial Services Board (FSB) regulates market conduct.
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Source: FIN24
Nationalisation: Malema ruling telling
August 29, 2011--The nationalisation debate in the mining industry will probably head into an entirely new direction when the dust settles over the disciplinary hearing of ANC youth leader Julius Malema and his mouthpiece, Floyd Shivambu.
Just a year ago Malema and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) managed to get the ANC to appoint a commission to investigate possible nationalisation in the mining industry. Malema and the youth league want the state to nationalise 60% of all mining companies, without compensation.
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Source: FIN24
Rand, JSE get fillip from Bernanke
August 26, 2011-- The rand gained more than 1% against the dollar on Friday, tracking a rally in US stocks and topping the list of emerging market currencies tracked by Reuters.
The rand was trading at R7.1350/$ in early evening trade, 1.3% firmer than Thursday's New York close of R7.2325/$.
Government bonds also ended firmer, with yields falling across the curve.
The JSE closed in positive territory, rebounding from earlier losses.
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Source: FIN24
Bonds remain firm on short covering
August 26, 2011-- South African bonds stayed firm in late trade on Friday, on the back of short-covering.
Earlier in the day a trader said: "I don't think he has a lot of room to manoeuvre, so it's going to be a lot of lip service to what they'd like to see. I don't think there's any firm plan they can put into place, I certainly don't see their option, QE3, being part of the policy. Either way it's a difficult situation for them, but it's obviously the rhetoric that will affect markets."
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Source: FIN24
South Africa: Macro Policy Mix and Its Effects on Growth and the Real Exchange Rate -- Empirical Evidence and GIMF Simulations-IMF Working paper
August 25, 2011--Summary: This paper examines whether a mix of tighter fiscal policy, looser monetary policy, and greater reserve build-up would increase growth and depreciate the rand in real terms.
The experience of South Africa over the last twenty years is looked at using a number of econometric techniques that control for the external environment.
Measuring the Potential Output of South Africa-IMF Report
August 25, 2011--Summary: This paper provides an assessment of the South African potential output for the period 1985-2010 by applying both structural and nonstructural estimation techniques. The analysis suggests that, while potential output growth steadily accelerated in the post-apartheid era to about 3 1/2 percent (1994-2008), it has decelerated considerably following the outbreak of the financial crisis, as was observed in other advanced and emerging economies.
While this indicates that, at around -1 1/ 2 percent, the estimated 2010 output gap was lower than previously thought, there is a fair amount of uncertainty regarding its "true" magnitude, reflecting in part the backward looking nature of the estimation methods. The paper concludes that the potential growth is likely to gradually revert to its precrisis pace and the output gap to have closed by early 2012.
view the IMF report-Measuring the Potential Output of South Africa
Source: IMF
JSE up as markets wait on Bernanke
August 25, 2011--The JSE was in positive territory at noon on Thursday ahead of the US Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke's speech on Friday. Bernanke was widely expected to announce some sort of stimulus for the US economy.
By 12:12 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.87% to 29 861.21 points with resources 1.61% higher, industrials up 0.63%, and platinum miners gaining 0.43%. Banks rose 0.20%, and financials added 0.18%. Gold was flat (0.04%).
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Source: FIN24
