Currency | - Part 2

Economic Recovery in Nigeria Hobbled by Oil, Currency Policy

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) Nigeria’s economy may struggle to rebound from its worst slump in 25 years unless President Muhammadu Buhari can end an armed conflict in the nation’s oil-producing region and fix a currency policy that’s blocked investment. Pipeline attacks in the Niger River delta cut oil production by a third last year, slashing government revenue, while central bank intervention and trading restrictions that prop up the value of the naira have stymied trade and…

Goldman’s Contrarian View on South Africa’s Rand

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s still some momentum left in South African rand’s rally, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The 148-year-old Wall Street lender predicts the currency will extend its 17 percent gain since the beginning of 2016 to end the year at 13 per dollar, a level last seen in 2015. That’s a view shared by only three out of 26 analysts in a Bloomberg survey: the median forecast is for the currency…

Volatile Pound Stokes Life Into Emerging-Market Carry Trades

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s life in the great emerging-market carry trade yet, although now it comes with a twist. Investors are betting a trade that reaped returns of more than 20 percent last year for borrowing dollars to buy Brazil’s real, Russia’s ruble and South Africa’s rand has further to run — only they’re using the battered British pound to fund long positions in emerging-market currencies. Citigroup Inc. on Monday named shorting the pound against the Russian…

Egypt fixes customs dollar exchange rate to help importers

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CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt will fix its customs dollar exchange rate and adjust it on a monthly basis to help importers better cope with a pricing of their products after the central bank floated its currency in November. The Finance Ministry fixed the customs exchange rate at 18.5 pounds per dollar until the end of February and said it will review the rate each month, state news agency MENA reported late on Monday….

Angola’s Access to Dollars Dries Up as Foreign Banks Halt Supply

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – All foreign banks have stopped providing dollar clearing in Angola, which vies with Nigeria as Africa’s largest crude oil producer, according to court papers filed in South Africa by Standard Bank Group Ltd. A single European bank that had been providing the service, which wasn’t identified in the submission, has pulled out of the country, Standard Bank said in the documents, which were submitted to the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. The…

South Africa’s rand rallies, stocks slide to 10-month low

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand rallied to its firmest in nearly a month on Tuesday, brushing off a poor economic growth print as a weaker dollar and bets on improvement in commodity prices boosted appetite for emerging currencies. Stocks ended lower in a broad-based sell-off that sent the benchmark index to its lowest level in nearly 10 months as weaker metal prices pressured heavily weighted mining shares. By 1530 GMT the…

Newly floated Egyptian pound moves little as interbank trading begins

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s pound was almost steady early on Sunday as banks began trading freely for the first time since authorities ditched the currency’s peg in a policy shift designed to crush a black market and clinch an International Monetary Fund loan. Interbank trading began at 1030 a.m. (0830 GMT) but activity was extremely slow because banks were uncertain about the propects for supply and demand of U.S. dollars. The pound…

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