Author: The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) -Zimbabwe’s central bank is considering devaluing its quasi-currency as part of a raft of reforms to the nation’s foreign-exchange system, according to a central bank official. Depreciating the so-called bond notes would be an acknowledgment that the official one-for-one exchange rate is no longer sustainable. It would also mark the second major overhaul to Zimbabwe’s currency regime since October, when the central bank ordered lenders to separate deposits of U.S. dollars and…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is returning to the dollar debt market to benefit from renewed investor confidence in the economy after sweeping reforms and support from the International Monetary Fund. The government is offering benchmark-sized tranches maturing in five, 10 and 30 years, according to a person familiar with the matter. The initial pricing target is more than one percentage point over last year’s three-part deal that raised $4 billion across similar maturities. Egypt plans to sell as…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – With the U.S.-China trade dispute dominating headlines this year, idiosyncratic risks in emerging markets have played second fiddle to concerns over global growth. South Africa, Nigeria, Thailand and Russia each gave money managers a reminder of how quickly local issues can flare up over the past week. It happened just as some investors were starting to ask if the emerging-market trade was getting overcooked. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand is most at risk of a slide among the high-yielding currencies this year even as a more dovish Federal Reserve and weaker dollar support developing-nation assets, according to Standard Chartered Plc. Domestic mis-steps and weak fundamentals in emerging-markets could quickly outweigh a supportive global environment, especially during spurts of strength in U.S. markets, Standard Chartered analysts Geoff Kendrick, Razia Khan and Samir Gadio wrote in a note to clients. “While global…