The Editorial Team |

IMF Says S. Africa Has No Fiscal Space, Must Push Reforms

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa has no fiscal space left and must implement strong budget consolidation and state-owned company reforms to ensure its debt sustainability, the International Monetary Fund said. The October medium-term budget policy statement showed gross government debt would surge to 80.9% of gross domestic product in the 2028 fiscal year unless urgent action is taken. That trajectory is almost 20 percentage points higher than forecast in the February budget…

Ghana Opposition Vows Banking Overhaul Review as Vote Nears

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s main opposition pledged to review the central bank’s overhaul of the financial sector if the party wins December’s elections, saying the cleanup was unnecessarily drastic and expensive. Announcing the National Democratic Congress’s main economic policies to reporters in Accra on Thursday, ex-President John Mahama said some of the banks and second-tier lenders that were closed during the cleanup could be resuscitated. This will help depositors access locked-in funds sooner and reduce…

Africa Sees Strength in Numbers in Go-Solo World: Terms of Trade

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cross-border trade in Africa brings to mind trucks backed up at border posts, corrupt officials and the smugglers trying to avoid them, and just all-around petty bureaucracy. That translates into delays, frustration and higher costs. No doubt it has limited trade between nations on the continent to just 15% of all export and import commerce compared with more than 70% in Europe. In 2020, that’s all supposed to change — or at least…

U.S. Won’t Take All Troops Out of Africa, Pentagon’s Chief Says

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.S. has no plans to pull all troops out of Africa even as it looks at how to adjust forces for strategic priorities led by competition with China and Russia, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. “We are not going to totally withdraw forces from Africa,” Esper said at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, seeking to allay growing concerns on the continent that a review he’s ordered will result in…

Here Is What a WHO Global Health Emergency Means: QuickTake

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee has declared the outbreak of coronavirus in China a “public health emergency of international concern.” The declaration is often referred to by its initials — PHEIC, pronounced “fake” — but it gives the WHO real capabilities to affect the course of an epidemic. Governments and companies around the globe are already scrambling to contain the illness, which has shown up in a smattering of cases beyond China. But the…

Trump Acquittal Near With Senate Likely to Deny Witnesses

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The most consequential day in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial begins in the Senate on Friday, with Republican leaders likely to muster enough votes to block witnesses and rapidly move to acquit the president. The decision late Thursday by Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a Republican who had been considered a potential supporter of testimony, to vote against new evidence largely dashed Democrats hopes of prevailing. His announcement is a victory…

No Longer European, a Divided Britain Seeks a New Identity

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Now, as some mourn and others celebrate, the U.K. must find itself again. At 10 a.m. inside Aux Merveilleux de Fred, a patisserie in the heart of London’s French quarter, the air is thick with the aroma of butter. Aicha Boubakri, 30, is arranging neat rows of pastel-colored cream pastries in front of the bakery’s only customer. “It’s a bit sad—the fact that the U.K. will no longer be…

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