The Editorial Team |

What can we learn from South Korea? What is the situation in Japan?

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Korea’s efforts to combat coronavirus yielded impressive results. The number of coronavirus patients there stands at 8,961 as of March 23.12 But after a dramatic increase was observed through the first week of March, driven by a surge among participants in a large religious gathering in Daegu, the number of daily new patients has dropped to only approximately 100 over the past week. The slower pace of spread…

What did China do right? How did they bend the curve, and is economic activity really returning?

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Chinese authorities acted late to contain COVID-19 because of local governments’ initial confusion and obfuscation of the mysterious illness, and they then had to resort to extreme social-distancing controls and lockdown measures. The new infections curve in China was also flattened through large-scale virus testing, which led to more accurate diagnosis and ultimately slowed the contagion. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan quickly learned from this example and were able…

Role of Regional Financial Integration in Promoting Growth, Development and Poverty Reduction in Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Regional financial integration refers to a process, market-driven and/or institutionalized, that broaden and deepen financial links within the region. At the very least, this process involves eliminating barriers to cross border investments and differentiated treatment of foreign investors. Further deepening of financial links can take the form of harmonizing national policies, laws, and institutions. Over time, cohesion of regulatory frameworks, operational structures and information systems, and convergence of prices…

Commodities: Brent oil prices to average $35.2 p/b for 2020

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – ICE Brent crude oil front-month prices closed at $19.3 barrel (p/b) on April 21, 2020, their lowest level since 2001. They constituted a decline of 24.4% from a day earlier and a drop of 30% from the previous week due to the contraction in oil demand and to the increase in global supply. The recent fall in Brent prices followed a plunge in the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil…

Moody’s changes Ghana’s outlook to negative from positive, affirms B3 rating

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) has today affirmed the Government of Ghana’s long-term local and foreign currency issuer and foreign currency senior unsecured bond ratings at B3 and changed the outlook to negative from positive. Moody’s has concurrently affirmed the local and foreign currency senior unsecured MTN ratings at (P)B3 and the rating of the bond enhanced by a partial guarantee from the International Development Association (IDA, Aaa stable) at…

Africa: Real GDP to contract by 1.6% in 2020

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund projected Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) real GDP to contract by 1.6% in 2020, down from its growth forecast of 3.6% last October and following an expansion of 3.1% in 2019. It attributed the anticipated contraction to the adverse impact on production and demand of the measures that governments imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, to the spillovers from subdued economic activity worldwide, to tighter…

Moody’s places Tunisia’s B2 rating on review for downgrade

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TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) has today placed the Government of Tunisia’s B2 issuer ratings on review for downgrade. Moody’s has also placed the Central Bank of Tunisia’s B2 senior unsecured rating and the (P)B2 senior unsecured MTN program and senior unsecured shelf ratings on review for downgrade. The Central Bank of Tunisia is legally responsible for the payments on all of the government’s bonds. These debt instruments are issued…

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