The Editorial Team |

Africa Has to Weather Covid Trauma Without Massive Stimulus

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — For advanced economies dealing with economic disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, the response of choice has been massive stimulus packages. Africa is doing without them. While central banks and governments in North America, Asia and Europe have offered trillions of dollars to prop up businesses hit by lockdowns and provide a safety net for the swelling ranks of the unemployed, a lack of liquidity restricts African governments from providing…

South African Banks at Risk of Deepest Profit Slump in 50 Years

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South African banks face the steepest earnings slump in half a century — with some posting losses — as measures to curb the coronavirus drag the economy deeper into recession and lead to a surge in bad debts. “I have looked at each and every crisis in the last fifty-odd years and there is nothing this severe,” said Corné Conradie, an actuary and partner at auditing and consultancy firm…

Virus Spreads as Africa Re-Opens; Investors Aren’t Worried

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Investors are piling into African assets as if the coronavirus pandemic never happened. Even as questions hang over whether governments in the region will be able to sustainably address the economic and health consequences of the pandemic, stock markets, currencies and bonds have been on a tear since at least the beginning of May. Investors are looking past the risks as an unprecedented stimulus by governments and central banks…

A Red Line Crossed: South Africa Seeks Aid From the IMF

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The economic calamity of the coronavirus broke South Africa’s resistance to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. And now some allies of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress worry that the $4.2 billion loan his government is negotiating with the Washington-based agency marks the first step toward a slippery slope of submission. “This is a precursor because Cyril’s government doesn’t have the resources,” said Lumkile Mondi, an economics…

EU Looks to Johnson to Stop No-Deal Brexit With Talks at Impasse

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — The European Union will try to convince Boris Johnson to forge a compromise later this month in an attempt to stop the U.K. from breaking away from the bloc without a trade deal. With the negotiations deadlocked, and the latest talks set to end Friday without a breakthrough, the EU is pinning its hopes on a dramatic intervention by the British prime minister when he speaks to European Commission…

Trump’s Show of Force Fizzles in Backlash Over Protest Crackdown

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Donald Trump faced a dwindling set of options to address nationwide unrest, after a backlash erupted over the government’s violent dispersal of peaceful protests outside the White House, plunging the president into more election-year turmoil. For Trump and his conservative backers, his photo op late Monday in front of historic St. John’s Episcopal Church with Bible in hand was a show of strength — a symbolic move meant…

New Ebola Outbreak in Congo, Already Hit by Measles and Coronavirus

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CONGO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Five people have died in Mbandaka, a western city more than 750 miles away from another Ebola outbreak in the country. It is unclear how the disease emerged in the city during the lockdown. DAKAR, Senegal — A fresh outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has flared up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that was already contending with the world’s largest measles epidemic, as well as…

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