Economy | - Part 20

Gabon Misses Out on Africa Bond Rally as Vote Dispute Weighs

GABON, Capital Markets in Africa: Gabon is missing out on Africa’s bond rally because of an electoral dispute that’s weighing on investor confidence. The oil-producing nation’s dollar bonds have lost 1.4 percent this month, the most out of 17 sub-Saharan African nations tracked by Bloomberg, which returned an average 0.6 percent. Yields on Gabon’s 2024 securities have climbed 77 basis points since the presidential poll of Aug. 27. Emerging-market bond issuers are set for a record…

Ghana’s Mahama Pledges End to IMF Bailouts in New Term Bid

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ACCRA, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama pledged that the West African country won’t seek further bailouts from the International Monetary Fund while economic growth will almost double next year as he seeks a second term. Mahama is leading his National Democratic Congress to polls scheduled for December while the country is in the second year of an almost $1 billion loan-program with the IMF. Ghana turned to the Washington-based lender in April 2015 after…

South Africa Current-Account Gap Narrows as Rand Boosts Exports

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s current-account deficit narrowed to 3.1 percent of gross domestic product in the second quarter after the nation’s exports received a boost from the lagged effect of last year’s rand weakness. The gap on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, narrowed from a revised 5.3 percent in the first three months after the nation recorded its first quarterly trade surplus in a year, the Reserve Bank…

South Africa’s Economy Diagnosis: Welcome To Stall Speed

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Growth in South Africa is likely to hit stall speed in 2016, at a barely positive 0.3%Y, by our estimates. Yet even as a Brexit-induced global growth shock further complicates the outlook, we see currency prospects as less concerning. The SARB is on hold for the foreseeable future, in our view. A revised GDP data series combined with our views of economic stagnation in several developed markets in 2017…

President Zuma Turmoil Leaves South Africa’s Economy Down But Not Out

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, Capital Market in Africa: At first glance, South Africa appears on a road to nowhere, mired in leadership turmoil and economic stagnation that are rolling back many of the hard-won gains of 22 years of multiracial rule. President Jacob Zuma, who’s lurched from one scandal to the next, is warring with his finance minister over control of the National Treasury. Government and ruling-party officials are at each other’s’ throats over policy, appointments and alleged cronyism. And the…

Raising Capital to Balance Budget Deficits in Uganda: Issues, Options and Strategies

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Uganda’s fiscal deficit has widened sharply in the recent past increasing from 2.5 percent of GDP in 2011/12 to 6.2 percent of GDP in 2015/16 driven mainly by an increase in public investment in infrastructure, in particular roads and hydropower projects. At the same time, due to the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, foreign aid to developing economies like Uganda declined significantly as advanced economies adopted austerity…

Ghana’s Monetary and Fiscal Policy Choices in Difficult Times

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s economic decline in the last 5 years left the sense of a “loud silence” as the investor community was stunned by the adverse turn of events in an economy recently (and probably still) perceived as Africa’s rising star. While the economic downturn was triggered by domestic factors underpinned by the fiscal and monetary policy choices, the collapse in commodity prices due to weakened demand in China and the…

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