IMF Country Focus South Africa: Restoring Confidence to Oil the Wheels for Growth
August 2, 2018--It's been almost 25 years since the end of apartheid, the system of institutionalized racial segregation that left most South Africans with limited access to basic services.
The post-apartheid years saw remarkable progress in terms of poverty reduction, access to education, and reducing unemployment. But some of those early achievements have unwound recently amid slow growth and political uncertainty.
The IMF's latest assessment of South Africa's economy projects real GDP growth will stay slightly below 2 percent in the medium term, not enough to increase living standards or make a dent in unemployment.
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Source: IMF
Investor fears weaken the JSE
August 1, 2018--The JSE closed lower on Wednesday as investor fears set in surrounding the ANC's announcement that it wanted to amend the Constitution to clarify under which conditions land expropriation without compensation could take place.
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Source: FIN24
Rand falls on news ANC wants constitutional amendment on land expropriation
July 31, 2018--The rand, which hit a six-week high earlier in the day, abruptly lost 16 cents to the dollar in late trade.
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Source: FIN24
JSE firms on hopes of new talks between China, US over tariffs
July 31, 2018-News that China and the US were seeking to restart talks to defuse their trade war helped undo earlier negative market sentiment.
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Source: FIN24
JSE edges higher on strong financials
July 30, 2018--While the Industrial index lost 0.06%, both the Financials and Resources indices ended up on the day and the rand firmed against the dollar.
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Source: FIN24
IMF Staff Country Reports-South Africa: Selected Issues
July 30, 2018--WHAT LED TO THE DOUBLING OF PUBLIC DEBT IN THE LAST DECADE? WAS DEBT GOOD FOR GROWTH?1
A permanent increase of 4 percentage points of GDP in national government expenditure underlies the doubling of public debt in the last decade. The wage bill accounted for most of the expenditure increase (64 percent), followed by the interest bill (23 percent).
The debt expansion, thus, financed a countercyclical fiscal policy centered on current spending, which likely shielded the impact of subdued economic activity, but had limited permanent effects on growth. Had resources devoted to wage increases and debt service payments been invested in more productive outlays, such as highly productive capital expenditure and reforms in key network industries, the growth gains would have been higher.
view the IMF Staff Country Reports-South Africa: Selected Issues
Source: IMF
Rand stronger in morning session in wake of China investment commitment
July 25, 2018--After rallying Tuesday on news that China had committed to investing $14.7bn in SA, the rand continued to trade stronger on Wednesday, strengthening by 0.4% at noon.
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Source: FIN24
JSE advances as retailers and financials maintain momentum
July 24, 2018--The JSE advanced with blue-chips trading mostly in positive territory as retailers and financials continued to move the local bourse higher.
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Source: FIN24
Nigeria:Stock Market Investors Lose N11 Billion On Trading Floor
July 18, 2018--Continued share price depreciation on the equity sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday pulled the market capitalisation further down by N110 billion.
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Source: allafrica.com
African Trade Report 2018
July 13, 2018-The 2018 edition of the African Export-Import Bank's annual flagship report-the African Trade
Report- titled "Boosting Intra-African Trade: Implications of the African Continental Free
Trade Area Agreement" (the "Report") has been prepared at a time when concerted efforts are
being made across the continent by both sovereign and corporate entities to deepen economic
integration and boost intra-regional trade and cross-border investments.
The report provides
an important insight on the potential benefits of the AfCFTA Agreement in terms of growth,
diversification of sources of growth and exports, development of global value chain, but also
in terms of integration of African countries into the global economy. In particular, the analysis
carried out shows that a complete tariff removal coupled with significant reduction in nontariff
barriers could lift economic growth and raise the volume of exports and imports while
significantly improving the terms of trade across Africa.
view the African Trade Report 2018
Source: The African Export Import Bank