Economy

Global central banks are set to spend 2022 diverging, as some take on the menace of inflation and others stay focused on boosting economic growth. The pandemic remains a risk to demand the world over, but after triggering a recession in 2020, its subsequent igniting of price pressures has also posed a challenge for monetary policy makers. They enter a new year having to tread carefully. Acting quickly to control prices could end up quashing expansions, especially…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Economists have struggled to see ahead in the pandemic. They’re upbeat about next year, but could easily get blindsided again. The Covid years are littered with predictions that didn’t work out. For anyone looking ahead into 2022, that should be enough to give pause.Most forecasters, including Bloomberg Economics, have as their base case a robust recovery with cooling prices and a shift away from emergency monetary-policy settings. What could…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana faces the challenge of presenting a clear strategy to revive South Africa’s torpid economy and return public finances to a sustainable path when he presents his first mid-term budget on Thursday. Key metrics in the spending plan for the next three years will benefit from windfall mining revenue and upward revisions to gross domestic product, with the budget deficit likely to narrow faster than previously expected. Still, the country…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service cut Ethiopia’s sovereign credit rating for a second time since May, citing a delay in the nation’s planned debt restructuring and an escalating civil war. The company lowered the rating one level to Caa2, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Moody’s in March placed the country on review for downgrade, before cutting the rating two months later. The outlook is negative.A creditor committee to discuss Ethiopia’s…

TUNIS (Capital Martkets in Africa) – Tunisia is in “very advanced discussions” with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for sorely needed financial aid and talks with the IMF are ongoing, a central bank official said, as the nation’s political crisis weighs on already dire economic ills. An agreement with the two Gulf states may be reached soon, the head of financing and foreign transactions at the Tunisian regulator, Abdelkarim Lassoued, said Saturday in…

PORT LOUISE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mauritius exited a coronavirus-induced recession in the second quarter after construction and manufacturing rebounded. Gross value added grew 19.3% in the three months through June, compared with a year earlier, Port Louis-based Statistics Mauritius said in a report published on its website. That’s after five consecutive quarters of contraction — the longest recession on record. Manufacturing that rose 53% in the quarter led the rebound followed by construction…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The main risks to the economic outlook for South Africa are a low vaccination rate and further lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic, S&P Global Ratings says Tuesday in emerging markets economic outlook. Higher borrowing costs associated with tighter global financing conditions and spillover effects of Chinese property sector problems could weigh on demand for metals and also pose risks to outlook Strict lockdown restrictions and deadly…