The Editorial Team |

Banks Set for Tough 2020 as Analysts Fear Rates, Elections

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Banks may be set for a harder time in the next few years as they face slowing earnings-per-share growth and mounting concern about tax hikes and tighter regulation if Democrats win in 2020, analysts say. Citi’s Keith Horowitz sees reduced earnings forecasts as bank stock valuations are “flashing red.” He updated his estimates and price targets to incorporate four interest rate cuts through 2020, which left Citi below Street estimates for…

New IMF Chief Sees ‘Serious Risk’ Global Slowdown to Spread

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kristalina Georgieva, in her first major address as head of the International Monetary Fund, painted a downbeat picture of the world economy and said a more severe slowdown could require governments to coordinate fiscal-stimulus measures. In a speech that sets the tone for next week’s annual meeting of the IMF, Georgieva said the fund will cut its growth forecast for both 2019 and 2020 in its next World Economic…

South Africa Heading for Junk, A-Plus Rating Forecaster Says

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Renaissance Capital, which has correctly predicted eight out of nine sovereign rating decisions in emerging Europe and the Middle East since May, is calling a downgrade to junk for South Africa next month. That view is at odds with the majority in the Bloomberg survey, but Renaissance Global Chief Economist Charles Robertson says South Africa’s fundamentals have deteriorated significantly since May when Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its Baa3 rating….

Zimbabwe Accuses U.S. of Lying About Diamond-Mining Forced Labor

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe angrily denounced a U.S. government decision to curb imports of diamonds from its Marange field, branding the claim the country uses forced labor at the operations “a shameless lie.” “Invoking the repulsive prospect of alleged forced labor is a new nomenclature for seeking to bar Zimbabwe’s diamonds from the international markets,” the southern African nation’s government said in a statement. “This move constitutes a grave and serious attack…

Ivory Coast Seeks 1.5 Billion Euros in Bonds for Buyback

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast plans to sell as much as 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in bonds to refinance existing debt. The West African nation is planning to issue two tranches of debt with a weighted average life of 11 to 15 years and 30 years, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about it. It plans to…

OPEC Is Prepared to Make Deeper Cuts If Needed, Nigeria Says

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria and other members of OPEC are ready to cut crude supplies further if prices continue to tumble, according to the country’s oil minister. “Everybody agrees in OPEC that we need to stabilize the market. We cannot allow prices just to plummet,” Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said in a Bloomberg TV interview Friday. The country is committed to complying fully with its new production quota of 1.774 million barrels a…

U.S. Slowing or Stalling Becomes the Question After Jobs Report

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NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Crawling or stalling? That’s the question hanging over the U.S. economy amid fresh evidence the once-hot labor market is losing steam. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 136,000 in September, according to a Labor Department report Friday that missed the median estimate of economists. That brought the average gain this year to 161,000, compared with 223,000 throughout 2018. On top of that, average hourly earnings rose 2.9% from a year earlier, the weakest…

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