Banking

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Eurasian Resources Group Sarl will halt production at a copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it considers future investment in new production methods. The shutdown at Boss Mining Sprl will curb cobalt supplies from a nation that accounts for three-quarters of global production of the metal used in rechargeable batteries. The suspension comes at a time of strained relations between Congo and investors after the nation last…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) = Investors are bidding up Egypt’s currency even with the wait for the central bank to resume interest-rate cuts unlikely to end for months. Plans to lift fuel subsidies this year are certain to push up inflation, which already gained in January after ending last year within the central bank’s target range. Bloomberg Economics estimates that the complete removal of fuel subsidies would increase inflation by as much as 2 percentage points, depending on…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A lobby group representing South African banks urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to prioritize the country’s wider interests rather than securing votes for the ruling African National Congress if he is to boost confidence in the economy before elections in May. Ramaphosa’s plan to split troubled power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. into three separate parts has met resistance from the country’s largest labor federation, which has been in an alliance with the ANC and the…

WINDHOEK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Namibia’s central bank held its key interest rate and said that the economy will probably expand in 2019 after two straight years of contraction. The Monetary Policy Committee maintained the rate at 6.75 percent, Deputy Governor Ebson Uanguta told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Windhoek. The economy of the world’s largest marine-diamond producer contracted last year, but the drop was smaller than in 2017, Uanguta said, adding that the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank has given the country’s lenders some much-needed relief by extending the time they will have to implement stricter accounting rules for bad loans. Lenders in the West African country now have four years to absorb impairments arising from the implementation of IFRS 9 accounting standards last year, thereby easing fears that an immediate transition would have severe repercussions for banks’ capital adequacy ratios. IFRS 9 requires them to…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s central bank has room for another interest-rate cut as early as next month, according to a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Following an unexpected reduction in the key rate in January, further loosening in March “could be a possibility” if inflation trends downward, said Philip Abradu-Otoo, who is also the head of research at the Bank of Ghana. The central bank is “fairly confident that inflation will…