Economy

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sub-Saharan Africa should benefit from stronger economic activity in Nigeria and South Africa this year. But we expect this recovery to be temporary. A weak investment climate and a high reliance on commodity exports will probably come back to haunt Africa’s two largest economies. Second-tier economies, such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Senegal are likely to keep expanding strongly in the near term, although they are testing critical…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s annual inflation rate rose for the first time in three months in February as food and transport prices increased. Consumer-price growth accelerated to 4.1 percent from a year earlier compared with 4 percent in January. That matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 17 economists. Key Insights Core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, fuel and electricity, was 4.4 percent, matching the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Fresh from his comfortable re-election, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari faces a huge hurdle to keep his vow to end the economy’s addiction to oil: win a lasting peace in the crude-rich Niger River delta. The 76-year-old former military ruler will have to score a breakthrough that’s eluded previous governments in an area where armed groups and thieves pose a constant threat to the flow of crude. To carry out his plans…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s inflation rate edged up in February, remaining inside the central bank’s target band for an 11th consecutive month. Consumer prices rose 9.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with the record-low rate of 9 percent in January, David Kombat, the acting government statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service, told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Accra. Prices rose 1 percent in the month. Key Insights: The uptick in inflation…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)  – South Africa may have to pay a premium if it taps international bond markets before a credit-rating review later this month and elections in May, according to investors who attended meetings with Treasury officials in London. The discussions started in the British capital on Monday and continue there today before moving to Boston and New York. Though they were billed as budget updates, the Treasury said last month it was…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube touted the health of his country’s economy even as the southern African nation experiences fuel shortages and the highest inflation rate since 2008. The government has put in place measures to liberalize the currency, curb spending and improve the management of state-owned companies he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Washington. Last month the country scrapped its insistence that local securities known as bond…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s economic growth will probably remain stunted unless household spending and investment pick up. While the economy emerged from a recession in the three months through September, a report from the statistics office on Tuesday will probably show growth slowed in the fourth quarter, according to the median estimate of 17 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Gross domestic product is estimated to have expanded 0.7 percent in 2018, according to…