Economy

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…

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…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt unexpectedly refrained from another cut in interest rates on Thursday after inflation ticked up in December and as unrest jolted other parts of the Middle East, from Iran to Libya. After three rounds of easing since August, the Monetary Policy Committee left the deposit rate at 12.25% and the lending rate at 13.25%, according to a statement Thursday. All but three of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted a…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African consumer confidence remained trapped at a two-year low and economic prospects are expected to worsen. The consumer-confidence index stayed at -7 in the fourth quarter, FirstRand Ltd.’s First National Bank said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. That’s still the lowest level since the final three months of 2017 and well off the record high of 26 when Cyril Ramaphosa took over as president two years ago. Business confidence in Africa’s…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Bank is the first key institution to cut its economic growth forecast for South Africa to below 1% for 2020 due to electricity supply concerns. It now expects the economy to expand by 0.9% this year, the Washington-based lender said Wednesday in its Global Economic Prospects report. That compares with an estimate of 1% in its Africa Pulse report released in October and is well below government forecasts. Its outlook for Africa’s most-industrialized…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Bank cut its forecast for Ethiopia’s economic growth in the 2020 fiscal year to 6.3%, well below the government’s projection. The National Bank of Ethiopia has forecast that gross domestic product growth would accelerate to 10.8% for the fiscal year ending in July, up from a 9% pace in fiscal 2019 as the government implements a blueprint expected to boost investment. Economic reforms by Prime Minister Abiy…