Economy

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s economic growth could pick up faster than forecast if the right structural reforms are implemented, the Reserve Bank said. That means the economy could expand faster than the 2 percent for 2020 the central bank projected last month, a rate it hasn’t exceeded since 2013. While last year’s 1.3 percent advance beat predictions, this doesn’t equate to a good performance, the Reserve Bank said in its six-monthly…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya may need to recalibrate its fiscal-consolidation plans if it’s to see economic growth rebound from a five-year low reached in 2017, the World Bank said. The government of East Africa’s biggest economy should slow the rate of expansion of recurrent expenditure, improve spending efficiency, restore the potency of monetary policy and rationalize tax exemptions to ensure its resources are fiscally sustainable, the Washington-based lender said in an economic update…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa could more than halve its number of poor people to 4 million by 2030 if it addresses corruption, gets free higher education right and reduces policy uncertainty in its mining industry, the World Bank said. “Slow private investment growth and weak integration into global value chains prevent the country from reaping the new economic opportunities emerging around the globe, and from catching up with living standards in…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Annual inflation in Egypt eased to its lowest level since May 2016, offering further evidence that the impact of the pound’s flotation and subsidy cuts is fading. The annual rate in March in urban parts of Egypt dropped to 13.3 percent from 14.4 percent in February, according to data posted on the website of the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS. The figure is squarely within the target range of 13 percent,…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund denied asking the Zambian government to undertake an independent audit of its foreign debt. The Washington-based lender also didn’t release any estimate of Zambia’s debt to donors, resident representative Alfredo Baldini said Monday in an emailed response to questions. Nomura International Plc economist Peter Attard Montalto said in a March 27 note the IMF had requested that Zambia’s government undertakes an independent audit of its foreign debt….