The Editorial Team |

Insight into Nigeria’s Macroeconomic Climate in 2017

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The novelty has worn off by now. Barring a minor miracle, the Nigerian economy entered a full-year recession in 2016, its first in two decades. Added to this, the simultaneous rise in unemployment (up to 13.9% according to most recent data) and inflation (18.6% in December) tilted the country into stagflation. A slump in oil export earnings on the back of major disruptions in oil production significantly contributed to…

Morocco’s Favourable Prospects with Strong Fundaments in 2017

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RABAT (Capital Markets in Africa) – Prospects for Moroccan economy in 2017 are favourable with stronger economic growth on the one hand and, on the other, an on-going contraction in the twin deficits, which will help restore the long-term health of the country’s public finances and balance of payments. As far as the growth outlook is concerned, expectations of GDP growth in 2017 should once again highlight the economy’s sensitivity to the agricultural sector. In…

South Africa’s Macroeconomic Prospects and Risks in 2017

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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…

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