Economy | - Part 38

South African Inflation at 7-Year Low Boosts Rate-Cut Case

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa )- South Africa’s inflation rate fell to seven-year low in March, making a stronger case for the central bank to consider an interest-rate cut. Inflation slowed to 3.8 percent from a year earlier, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Wednesday in a report on its website. The median estimate of 20 economists was 4.1 percent in a Bloomberg survey. Price growth has remained within the central bank’s target range of 3…

Morocco: Growth projected at 4.5% over the medium term

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RABAT (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund projected Morocco’s real GDP growth to decelerate from 4.4% in 2017 to 3.1% in 2018, as agricultural production returns to its normal level following high output last year. But it expected growth to accelerate gradually to about 4.5% in the medium term and to remain favourable in case of improved external conditions and sustained reform implementation. Further, it forecast the inflation rate to average 1.3%…

Nigeria Rate-Cut Hope Lives as Inflation Slows to Two-Year Low

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian inflation slowed for a 14th straight month in March, taking consumer-price growth below the benchmark interest rate for the first time in two years and opening the door for a rate cut. Consumer inflation in Africa’s most-populous nation decelerated to 13.3 percent from a year earlier, the lowest rate in two years and below the benchmark rate of 14 percent. Nigeria’s central bank left its main lending rate…

South Africa Growth May Pick Up Faster Than Expected, Bank Says

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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…

World Bank Urges Kenya to Rethink Fiscal-Consolidation Plan

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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…

Ghana Economic Growth Rate More Than Doubles in 2017 to 8.5%

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s economy expanded at the fastest rate in five years in 2017 as oil and gas production surged. Gross domestic product expanded 8.5 percent last year compared with 3.7 percent in 2016, acting Government Statistician Baah Wadieh told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday. Oil and gas output surged 80.4 percent, contributing to an increase in the industry sector, which accounts for almost a quarter of the economy. This came…

South Africa Could Halve Number of Poor by 2030, World Bank Says

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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…

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