Economy

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The moment usually comes during Greg Petras’s commute through the rolling hills and cornfields of southern Wisconsin. Somewhere between his home near Madison and the factory he runs on the edge of the small town of Brodhead, the news will turn to the trade wars and Donald Trump will again claim that China is bearing the cost of his tariffs. That’s when Petras loses it. “It’s just an…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s plan to spend less on food by restricting access to dollars for importers could have the opposite effect by threatening food supplies and pushing up prices. President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the central bank on Aug. 13 to stop dollar supply for food imports, saying food security has been achieved and agricultural production has increased. That came after Governor Godwin Emefiele said in July the central bank plans to cut off dairy importers’ access…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – A reliable recession indicator has lost some of its power to predict. The chance of a recession in 2020 has Democratic campaign strategists feverish with anticipation—while trying not to show it—and President Trump even more amped up than usual. While Trump says he’s confident of the strength of the U.S. economy, his actions indicate otherwise. He’s demanding that the Federal Reserve cut its key rate target by at least a full…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The threat of an International Monetary Fund bailout, unthinkable a few years ago, may force South Africa’s government to push through the reforms it needs to rescue the economy. An expanded bailout for struggling power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and calls from other state companies for support have strained the nation’s budget, prompting business groups and analysts to warn the country could be pressed to ask the IMF to help…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s government said it’s ready to settle with global lenders, sell assets and make the difficult spending decisions needed for financial recovery. But with opposition protests against plunging living standards scheduled in cities nationwide, it’s in a race against time. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube dismissed rapidly accelerating inflation as “wage compression” and warned the country will have to endure four more months…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in AfricA) – South Africa has not asked the International Monetary Fund for assistance and does not need it, the lender’s resident representative in the country said. The IMF doesn’t see a balance-of-payments problem in South Africa, which means there’s no need for IMF support, Montfort Mlachila said Thursday at a conference hosted by the Bureau for Economic Research in Johannesburg. “To tell you the truth we, by we I mean the institution, much prefer the…