The Editorial Team |

At More Than 500%, Zimbabwe’s Ncube Sees Inflation Stabilizing

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa)~ Zimbabwean inflation is beginning to stabilize, even with consumer prices increased more than 500% on an annual basis, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. Year-on-year inflation remains high, “but that’s expected, that happens when you liberalize a currency,” Ncube said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos. After a decade of using a basket of foreign currencies, including the South African rand and the…

Tesla Created Demand for Electric Cars, But Only for Teslas

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tesla Inc.’s stock is soaring, and traditional auto manufacturers are staging glitzy presentations of new plug-in models. You’d think the electric-vehicle age was finally dawning. But so far, Tesla is the only car company looking likely to benefit in the coming years. Look at every other corner of the U.S. auto industry — the world’s most valuable automaker, dealers, consumer surveys and market forecasts — and a more ominous picture…

Biggest Retailer in Zimbabwe Turns to Solar Amid Power Crisis

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Corporates in Zimbabwe are moving to solar energy to stave off erratic electricity supply and escalating fuel costs. OK Zimbabwe, the largest retail operator with 64 stores in the southern African nation, is joining the move to renewable energy and will start using solar power at its suburban stores this year, according to Chief Executive Officer Alex Siyavora. Power cuts lasting as long as 18 hours a day have added…

Ethiopia Pushes Privatization to Give Economy a Sugar Rush

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ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – For decades, Irba Jana has scraped out a modest living from sugar cane, selling his harvest to mills run by Ethiopia’s state-owned sugar monopoly. But lately, he’s been working as a security guard to supplement his income, as two of the three nearby processing facilities have closed because of a lack of upkeep and investment. “Sugar cane just isn’t profitable anymore,” says Irba, a grizzled, 50-year-old father of…

South Africa’s MPC Held Off Half-Point Rate Cut Despite Flexibility

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s central bank didn’t consider easing policy by more than 25 basis points last week, despite the flexibility it has with interest rates, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. “As a small open economy, we don’t have the problem that the developed world has where monetary policy is at the zero lower- bound, we have the flexibility to do things,” Kganyago said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at…

Cash Crunch Forces South African Airways to Cancel Flights

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A financial crisis at South African Airways deepened Tuesday as a funding squeeze forced the national carrier to cancel several domestic and international flights. Eight flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town will be cut this week, and 20 between Johannesburg and Durban, the carrier said in an emailed statement. It also canceled 10 flights between Johannesburg and Munich. The move is “in line with SAA’s usual policy of reviewing flights and consolidating…

It’s Trump Versus Greta in ‘Prophets of Doom’ Climate Showdown

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – They are the two highest-profile attendees at this year’s annual World Economic Forum, but their respective recipes for global salvation couldn’t be further apart. President Donald Trump and climate activist Greta Thunberg talked past each other in dueling speeches at Davos on Tuesday that underscored the difficulty in achieving any kind of consensus on the urgency of the environmental challenges facing the planet. Trump, addressing the annual meeting of the…

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