The Editorial Team |

Africa Executives Welcome Thiam Move, Say There Should Be More

JOHANNESBURG – African business leaders cheered Tidjane Thiam’s appointment as chief executive of Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG this week. So far, though, Mr. Thiam’s ascent to the top of a western multinational looks like the exception to the rule that executives from the continent still don’t reach the top of the global corporate elite. “He’s a great leader who happens to have roots in Africa. At some point we need to get to…

Lower oil prices to strain net exporters, offer respite to importers

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Lower oil prices will reverse the financial performance of oil exporters and importers in 2015, with exporters’ public finances coming under renewed pressure and importers given some help in reducing their deficits, Moody’s Investors Service says in a report published today. Moody’s report, entitled “Global Oil Price Shock: Challenges for Oil-Exporting Sovereigns, Breathing Space for Importers” is available on www.moodys.com. The impact of cheaper energy means oil exporters face worsening fiscal and external balances, with some…

How to make use of compounding in your FX trading

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ALBERT Einstein reportedly said that compound interest is “the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” There are examples of compounding in FX. One FXCM client, for instance, invested $14,000 over the last two years and made a $100,000 return. How? First, they held positions for 28 days on average. Second, the trader would only trade in line with strong trends. Finally, they would add to…

South African rand hits 13-yr low as market sees U.S. rate hike

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand fell to a new 13-year low to the dollar on Monday, after investors sold off emerging market currencies amid heightened expectations of an imminent interest rate hike in the United States. At 1508 GMT the rand was trading 0.21 percent softer at 12.0600 to the dollar after earlier stumbling 0.8 percent to 12.1330, its weakest level since early March 2002, according to Thomson Reuters data. The currency recouped some…

Nigeria: claiming the African M&A crown

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Nigeria is home to the world’s seventh-largest population (with 173 million inhabitants), which is expected to surpass Brazil’s by 2030. And with increasing disposable incomes and a GDP growth rate around the 6% mark for the last 10 years, it isn’t hard to understand why Jim O’Neill, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management International, included Nigeria as one of the new wave of emerging economies, alongside Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey — the MINTs —…

South Africa rating not expected to change in next 24 months -S&P

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s credit rating is unlikely to change at another review in June or in the next 24 months, but an electricity crunch will shave 0.3 percent off this year’s economic growth, Standard & Poor’s said. In its macroeconomic outlook for Africa’s most advanced economy on Monday, S&P forecast growth of over 2 percent this year, which would accelerate in 2016 and beyond. But it warned that wage demands from the public…

Kenyan shilling weakens as traders meet dollar demands

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s shilling weakened slightly on Monday, with banks coming into the market to buy dollars to meet anticipated demand and square their positions.At 0750 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 91.25/35 to the dollar, compared to Friday’s close of 91.15/25 per dollar.”Guys have come in to take advantage of the lower rates to meet some of their demands,” said Martin Runo, a senior trader at Chase Bank.”Once the shilling started strengthening,…

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