Finance

JOHANNESBURGH (Capital Markets in Africa) – Politics is tying the hands of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as he weighs policy trade-offs needed to rejuvenate a moribund economy. The labor union leader-turned businessman took office a year ago, shortly after winning control of the ruling African National Congress by a razor-thin margin. With a large party faction remaining loosely aligned to his predecessor Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa’s political control remains tenuous. He is due to announce the government’s policy…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The new year was meant to be a time for final preparations for Brexit, officially slated for March 29. Instead, the U.K. Parliament has yet to approve the divorce accord that Prime Minister Theresa May brought back from Brussels. That’s caused fears of a no-deal exit to ripple dangerously through the real economy, according to the Bloomberg Brexit Barometer. The gauge’s monthly reading fell to a “rainy” minus 7.1 last…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Billionaire investor Robert Friedland said the copper deposit Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. is developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo has the potential to become the world’s No. 2 mine for the metal. “Kamoa-Kakula will become the world’s second-largest copper mine with peak annual production of more than 700,000 tons of copper metal,” Ivanhoe founder Friedland said Wednesday at a mining conference in Cape Town. Friedland announced the findings of an independent…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, sees recent changes to its mining royalties regime as fair and won’t consider a review despite warnings from the industry that it could deter investment and result in job losses, Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said. “There is no renegotiation taking place because a law has been passed in parliament to change the tax regime,” Mwanakatwe said Tuesday in an interview in Cape Town. “We don’t want…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Simukai Tabvura knew nothing other than Robert Mugabe’s strongman rule in Zimbabwe until his ousting little more than a year ago. The promise of change that accompanied the end of Mugabe’s near-four-decade reign has long since withered for the used clothes seller. “It’s like a year of being able to speak freely never happened,” said Tabvura, 41, sitting on a home-made wooden stool at her second-hand stall on a broken…

CAIRO(Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund’s executive board will discuss Egypt’s fourth loan review on Monday, opening the door for the anticipated payout of the fifth installment of the fund’s $12 billion loan to the Arab nation. The loan was approved in November 2016 after Egypt devalued its currency and launched a sweeping program to overhaul the economy. It was a key part of the government’s efforts to restore investor confidence that had…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.K. farmers will find it harder to sell their goods abroad while at the same time potentially facing more competition at home under a no-deal Brexit, according to an agricultural advisory group. That’s because World Trade Organization tariffs would make U.K. supplies less attractive for European buyers, and finding new markets quickly for things like lamb would be almost impossible, the U.K.’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said. If Britain…