The Editorial Team |

South Africa’s Macroeconomic Prospects and Risks in 2017

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African macroeconomic landscape is expected to gradually improve this year following the weak growth performance recorded last year. In essence, growth should lift, inflation should fall and policy rates should remain stable. This view is underpinned by several developments. Importantly we expect global growth to continue to rise gradually in the period ahead as the recent increase in commodity prices boost growth in commodity-exporting EMs, improved household…

African market outlook for 2017: Opportunities and challenges

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The global risk backdrop has been relatively supportive for emerging market (EM) FX and fixed income in early January 2017, as investors downplayed previous concerns about fiscal stimulus in the US under a Trump administration. This has underpinned the South African rand and local bonds and reinforced a receiving bias in swaps. However, there is a risk that upward pressure on UST yields and a bull USD cycle may…

Pan-African Banking Model: Balancing Risk and Reward

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa-originated banks are increasingly becoming dominated players across the financial landscape in Africa. This is happening at a time when some western-based banks are scaling back their activities in the region. For the most part, these pan-African banks originate from large African economies (based on income) such as Nigeria (United Bank of Africa), South Africa (Standard Bank), Morocco (Attijariwafa Bank) but also small economies such as Togo where Ecobank…

Nigeria aims to present reform plan in Feb for $1 bln World Bank loan

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria wants to borrow at least $1 billion from the World Bank to help haul it out of recession and plans to present the required economic reform proposals to the lender this month, officials and diplomats told Reuters. The oil producer, which has been hit hard by a sharp fall in crude prices since 2014, has been in talks with the Washington-based lender for a year to secure a…

IEA says record OPEC cut compliance helps oil market rebalance

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Global oil output plunged in January as OPEC and non-OPEC producers curbed supply to accelerate a market rebalancing following one of the largest oil gluts in a generation, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. Oil supplies fell by around 1.5 million barrels per day last month, including by 1 million bpd for OPEC, leading to record initial compliance of 90 percent with a six-month output-cut deal reached in December…

Central Bank of Kenya to float 12-year infrastructure bond

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya has floated treasury bond worth US$288 million to fund infrastructure projects coming two weeks after it cancelled a similar bid, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has said. The 12-year infrastructure bond, which is up for sale for the next two weeks and will later be listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s secondary market from February 28. “The Central Bank, acting as a fiscal agent for the Republic of…

Egypt: Tides Are Changing, Or Is History Repeating Itself?

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CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is flashing once again at the centre of emerging markets’ radar screen after a long recede, ever since the outbreak of the 2011 revolution and the years of political and economic instability that followed. The Government has just embarked upon long-awaited and badly needed structural reforms, including, but not limited to, a shift to a flexible exchange rate regime that aims to tackle the currency shortage and attract…

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