The Editorial Team |

Burundi Voters Back Longer Presidential Terms in Referendum

BUJUMBURA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Burundian voters backed sweeping constitutional changes including extending presidential terms to seven years, setting the stage for Pierre Nkurunziza to continue ruling the East African country until 2034. The proposed changes were backed by 73.3 percent of people who cast a vote in the May 17 referendum, the head of the electoral committee, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, told a briefing Monday in the capital, Bujumbura. About 19.3 percent voted “no,” while…

South African Bonds Catch a Break as Tide Turns in Their Favour

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s been a miserable quarter so far for South African bonds, but the worst may be over. After a selloff that started in April and wiped out this year’s gains, yields on benchmark securities fell on Tuesday as Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene delivered good news on the country’s fiscal deficit. Rates may fall further, provided global factors that roiled emerging markets in recent weeks don’t worsen, according to Standard Bank…

The Legal Cases Ensnaring Prominent South African Officials

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A slew of legal cases involving South African politicians and officials, including former President Jacob Zuma, are working their way through the courts, with some prominent public figures at risk of being jailed or losing their jobs. This is the state of play of some of the most high-profile lawsuits: Zuma’s graft trial Zuma, who the ruling party forced to resign in February after a scandal-tainted tenure lasting almost nine…

South Africa’s Nene Sees Faster Growth and Smaller Budget Gap

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s economy will expand faster and the fiscal deficit may be smaller than the estimates set out in the February budget, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said. Gross domestic product will grow more quickly this year than the 1.5 percent predicted in the budget, Nene told lawmakers in Cape Town on Tuesday, without giving a new forecast. The fiscal shortfall for the year to March 2018 could be “marginally lower” than…

Ghana Cuts Interest Rate to 4-Year Low as Inflation Slows

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than four years as the inflation rate fell within the regulator’s target band for the first time since 2013. The Bank of Ghana reduced the rate by 100 basis points to 17 percent, Governor Ernest Addison told reporters Monday in the capital, Accra. Lower borrowing costs may boost expansion in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. Inflation at 9.6 percent in April was…

Easing Inflation, Stable Naira Show Nigeria MPC May Be Right

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele’s tight monetary-policy stance and system of multiple exchange rates may have paid off through slowing inflation and a stable naira, and he’s not about to change that soon. The Monetary Policy Committee is meeting this week with price growth at a two-year low. All but four of the 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey said the panel will continue its unchanged stance on Tuesday. The MPC…

Kenya Drops Budget Cap to Reach Oil-Cash Deal, Lawmakers Say

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya agreed to drop budget-allocation limits for oil-rich counties in order to break a deadlock in passing a revenue-sharing law that’s delayed production. The Petroleum Exploration, Development and Production Bill, which was presented to lawmakers in February and later withdrawn, proposed giving communities 5 percent of revenue and county administrations receiving 20 percent provided those amounts did not exceed budget allocations by the national government. The local community’s share was…

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