The Editorial Team |

Zuma’s Moves Threaten Split in South Africa’s Ruling Alliance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African President Jacob Zuma’s decision to fire communist party leader Blade Nzimande from his cabinet is widening a rift with two of the African National Congress’s closest allies before a key leadership conference in December. In dismissing Nzimande as higher education minister Tuesday, Zuma, 75, targeted the communist party, which along with the main labor confederation, Cosatu, has said the president must step down because of a series of scandals that have…

Irish Said to Weigh Border Demand as Price for Brexit Progress

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ireland’s government is considering pushing for guarantees that no border will be imposed on the island of Ireland as the price for allowing Brexit talks to move ahead, according to three people familiar with the matter. Irish authorities are keen to use their leverage in the first part of the negotiations to extract maximum concessions on the border issue, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are ongoing….

McKinsey Admits to Failures in Eskom Scandal After Probe

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – McKinsey & Co. will review its practices in South Africa and suspend work for state companies after an internal investigation found it failed to follow its own procedures while working with the country’s power company. The U.S. consultancy never worked with any business linked to the Gupta family and didn’t make payments to directly or indirectly win contracts, the company said in a statement on the findings of its probe…

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney Confirms Rate Hike Is Near

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mark Carney reaffirmed that the Bank of England is close to its first interest-rate increase in over a decade, as inflation hit 3 percent and one of his colleagues said the economy is approaching a “tipping point.” In a series of testimonies to lawmakers, the BOE governor and the two newest members of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee signalled that the erosion of economic slack is dominating their thinking as they prepare for…

`Cautious’ BOE Makes Gilt Slide a Buy for Macquarie Investment

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The market’s pricing of two interest-rate hikes in coming months by the Bank of England is “a bit overdone” for Macquarie Investment Management and so it sees the recent fall in gilts as a buying opportunity. Markets are pricing in an 85 percent chance of a 25-basis-point rate increase for the next BOE meeting on Nov. 2, more than double the probability in early August after growing inflationary pressures in the U.K. and…

European Car Sales Drop as Brexit Concerns Hurt U.K. Demand

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – European car sales fell in September for only the second monthly drop this year as concerns about Brexit among United Kingdom. consumers more than offset gains in France, Italy and Spain. Registrations declined 2 percent from a year earlier to 1.47 million vehicles, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said Tuesday in a statement. Figures were dragged down by a 9.3 slide in the U.K., the region’s second-biggest…

Bankers Go on a Day Trip to Blockchain’s Magical World

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Blockchain experiments are everywhere in finance these days. Actual blockchain applications that are big enough to have any lasting impact on banking, not so much. Those offenders who talk a lot without doing anything of substance have even been given a name in crypto world. “Too many people are using [blockchain] as a buzzword and are not focused on solving a real problem,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote recently. “We like…

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