Category: Southern Africa
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Angola halves growth forecast, cuts spending as oil price bites
Angola has halved its 2016 economic growth forecast and slashed government spending as lower oil prices hammer state revenues in Africa’s largest crude exporter, the finance ministry said on Monday. Sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest economy will grow 1.3 percent this year, compared with a previous forecast of 3.3 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement.…
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Zambia Lusaka Stock Exchange enters global market
Thomson Reuters, the global information group has announced the commencement of the supply of real-time information from the Lusaka Inventory Exchange (LUSE) to improve fairness trade opportunities for its local and international customers. The global info group Public Relations Manager for Middle East and Africa Candice Sgroi mentioned in a press release these days that…
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South Africa’s Sibanye Gold to cut jobs at loss-making Cooke 4 mine
South Africa’s Sibanye Gold has began talks with unions for job cuts at its Cooke 4 mine after failing to stem heavy losses at the operation. The company first broached the subject of job cuts at the mine with unions in November 2014. Since then Cooke 4 has continued to fall short of production targets…
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South Africa: Rand sees ‘impressive’ recovery against pound amid Brexit
The rand has seen a 25% recovery against the British pound since January, after Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 24. “The rand has certainly been doing well,” said RMB analyst John Cairns on Monday. “The fall in (the pound to rand exchange rate) has been the most impressive, with moves below…
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S.African economy could weaken further in the third quarter, warns economist
The International Monetary Fund revised South Africa’s growth prospects down to 0.1 per cent from 0.6 per cent for 2016. “South Africa faces significant challenges and needs decisive action to revive growth,” the IMF said in its latest economic review.” Among others, the IMF cited low growth amid China’s slowdown and global financial volatility, political…
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South Africa:Siemens targets building gas-fired power plants
Siemens is interested in bidding to build gas-fired electricity-generating capacity in South Africa as the German engineering company boosts its presence in the country and the government seeks to end power shortages. “Gas can be a complete game-changer for the South African economy,” Siemens South Africa Chief Executive Officer Sabine Dall’Omo, 58, said in an…
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Zimbabweans stay at home in protest against economic hardships
Zimbabweans stayed at home on Wednesday and foreign banks and most businesses in the capital shut down, in one of the biggest protests against high unemployment, an acute cash shortage and corruption for nearly a decade. Evan Mawarire, a pastor whose social media movement #ThisFlag organised the “stay-away”, demanded that President Robert Mugabe fire corrupt…
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Angola: Sonangol’s Debt Woes
Angola’s state oil giant, Sonangol, is running out of time to prove it has a credible plan to repay US $13 billion in loans it obtained from a syndicate of European banks. The loans’ agreements came with a contractual obligation to produce annual balance sheets showing a healthy ratio of debt to capital and it…
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S.Africa should not underestimate ratings downgrades risk – deputy cbank governor
South Africa should not underestimate the risk of credit rating downgrades this year if the ailing economy does not improve, Central Bank Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele said on Wednesday. Pretoria dodged ratings downgrades from Moody’s, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch earlier this year, giving policymakers time to act to strengthen the economy of Africa’s most…
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Zimbabwe: Recover U.S$35 Million, Says House
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts says Government must recover about $35 million that was loaned to State parastatals and enterprises through the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe in 2010. The committee chaired by MDC-T MP for Mufakose Paurina Mpariwa, made these recommendations in its third report on the findings by the Auditor-General on…