The Editorial Team |

Lower Policy Rate Helps Rich, Not Poor, SARB Researchers Say

SOUTH AFRICA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The South African Reserve Bank is powerless when it comes to alleviating debt-service costs for the poorest 80% of the country’s people, researchers at the Pretoria-based central bank concluded. Reductions in the repurchase rate generally lead to lower borrowing costs for the richest 20%, but they’re negatively correlated with lending rates for the rest, economists Kerschyl Singh and David Fowkes wrote in a research paper published on the…

Time to Get Picky as Emerging-Market Traders Question Rally

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Emerging-market investors are getting selective even after bonds, stocks, and currencies kicked off the second half of the year on a high note. Money managers are questioning whether the developing world’s economic troubles will be short-lived as massive central-bank stimulus bolsters demand for risky assets. Emerging-market dollar bonds posted their longest weekly winning streak since February in the five days through Friday. Stocks and currencies rallied on Monday. Inflation data in at least 10 developing…

World Bank to Seed Ghana’s Development Lender With $250 Million

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The World Bank will provide Ghana with a $250 million credit facility to start its own development bank. The Washington-based lender is finalizing the terms of the funding with the country’s Ministry of Finance, the World Bank’s office in the nation’s capital, Accra, said in an email on Monday. The World Bank’s board may consider the facility before September, it said. Ghana’s government said in October that it plans to raise…

Shares used by many wealthy Zimbabweans as an inflation hedge

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) — When Zimbabwe suspended trading on its stock exchange last week, James Hove was left with no access to the funds he needs to conduct his business. Like many wealthy Zimbabweans, Hove invests in the local stock market. Not for the value, he sees in the companies whose stocks trade on it, but as a hedge against surging consumer prices while annual inflation is running at 786%, the benchmark Zimbabwe…

Nigerian Presidency Summons Anti-Graft Chief Over Asset Sales

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s presidency summoned the head of the nation’s anti-corruption body to discuss the sale of seized assets. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu attended the meeting after receiving an invitation from a presidential panel while en route to another meeting, the agency said Monday in an emailed statement. It denied a report by the online newspaper The Cable that Magu had been arrested. “The EFCC’s boss…

Angola’s Isabel Dos Santos Says Will Cooperate With Authorities

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Isabel dos Santos, who is accused of causing billions of dollars in losses to the Angolan government during her father’s 38-year rule, said she is available to cooperate with authorities to clear her name and find out the truth. “What I want to resolve as quickly as possible are the attacks on my reputation and my good name,” Dos Santos said in an emailed statement on Monday. “I’m available,…

Ghana’s Finance Chief Warns Years of Discipline Undone by Virus

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ghana’s budget deficit for 2020 will swell to more than double the legal limit because of the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, undoing years of fiscal consolidation that was supposed to mark the end of persistent financial bailouts. The fiscal gap is forecast to widen beyond 10% of gross domestic product from an adjusted outlook in March of 7.8% of GDP, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said in…

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