South Africa Inflation Near Top of Target Limits Policy Options

South Africa Inflation Near Top of Target Limits Policy Options

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s Monetary Policy Committee has little room to delay acting while inflation and price-growth expectations are hovering near the ceiling of its target range, according to the Reserve Bank. The contribution of monetary policy “is to prevent the temporary increase in specific prices from becoming a permanent acceleration in overall inflation,” the central bank said in its annual report for the year through March 2016, released on its website…

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Slowing South Africa CPI Gives SARB More Room to Pause on Rates

Slowing South Africa CPI Gives SARB More Room to Pause on Rates

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South African inflation unexpectedly slowed for a third month in May as food-price growth decelerated, giving the Reserve Bank room to keep interest rates unchanged to support an economy at risk of falling into recession. The inflation rate dropped to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent a month earlier, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said on its website on Wednesday. The median of 21 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for an acceleration to 6.4…

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Mauritius Eyes Nigeria, Other Africa Markets to Grow Tourism

Mauritius Eyes Nigeria, Other Africa Markets to Grow Tourism

Port Louis, Mauritius, Capital Markets in Africa: Mauritius is targeting Nigeria and other African nations to help sustain growth in tourism revenue that’s expected to reach almost 10 percent this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism Minister Xavier Luc Duval said. The country received 114,796 visitors from Africa in the first five months of this year, accounting for 22 percent of the total, according to Statistics Mauritius. Of the visitors from Africa, more than half came from the…

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Rand, South African Assets Rally on Fading Prospects for Brexit

Rand, South African Assets Rally on Fading Prospects for Brexit

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South African markets rallied as diminished risks that British voters will favor an exit from the European Union in the June 23 referendum prompted investors to buy developing-nation assets. The rand headed for its biggest gain in more than two weeks as government bonds advanced for a fourth day and stocks in Johannesburg for a third. The currency strengthened 2.2 percent, the most since June 3 on a closing basis, to 14.8162…

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Rand Snared and Ruble Spared Brexit Risk in U.K. Finance Web

Rand Snared and Ruble Spared Brexit Risk in U.K. Finance Web

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s rand is among emerging-market currencies most vulnerable to upheaval if Britain votes to leave the European Union, while ruble investors may find some benefit from the isolation provided by sanctions on Russia. That’s a possible conclusion to draw from a ranking of countries in central Europe and Africa based on the depth of their financial ties with U.K. banks, compiled by analysts at UniCredit SpA. British lenders’…

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South Africa Current-Account Gap Widens as Dividends Paid Rise

South Africa Current-Account Gap Widens as Dividends Paid Rise

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s current-account deficit widened to 5 percent of gross domestic product in the first quarter as dividend payments by local companies to foreign shareholders increased. The gap on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, widened from a revised 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin released on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The…

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Investment | Glencore Sells Agri Stake to Canadian Fund for $625 Million

Investment | Glencore Sells Agri Stake to Canadian Fund for $625 Million

South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: Glencore Plc agreed to sell just-under a 10 percent stake in its agriculture unit to Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corp. for $624.9 million in cash as it continues to cut debt. The commodities trader and miner, which sold a 40 percent stake in the business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $2.5 billion in April, will retain a majority 50.01 percent stake, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The agreement takes the value…

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