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Economy This week past newspapers reported that Egypt had floated its currency and accepted the pain that went with that. The result was that Egypt’s inflation slowed to single figures and FDI into Egypt has been higher than anywhere else in Africa. Now in Zimbabwe…...

Economy Moody’s reports that South Africa has the highest private sector debt to GDP ratio in sub Saharan Africa at 148%. The next highest is Kenya at 28%. Its conclusion is that the potential for organic growth by banks in South Africa could only be had by...

Economy President Mnangagwa says that the re-introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar will be a “return to normalcy”. If one were a sceptic, normalcy means bankruptcy and high inflation. The US dollar is predicted to slide into a modest bear market; i.e. 5 – 10% from...

Economy The week before last it was reported that Zimbabwe would be releasing its own currency by year end. It’s interim currency, the RTGS $ has plunged 60% against the US $since February and things are getting worse (its annual inflation reached 97% in May alone)....

Economy The SA BER index remained unchanged in Q2 at 28 points. RMB opined that a technical recession for the first half of this year remains a possibility. This week Prof Malikane (Wits) flighted an article on the South African debt situation. He estimates our...

Economy Silver bullet economics: post-election economic debate has centred on job creation and the Reserve Bank. Calls are made by a variety of worthies for the Reserve Bank to be privatised, and for it to drop interest rates, create jobs, release its reserves and...

Economy Stats SA reports that 44% of SA households receive at least one social grant, up from 30% 15 years ago. This somewhat depressing news prompted me to look further: I was lent a copy of the SA Survey 2019 by the IRR; the statistics are most interesting. Some of...

Economy Despite the exuberance that accompanied the swearing in of our latest Parliament, our economic outlook remains bleak: the OECD now estimates our growth forecast for this year at 1.2%. Kganyago (the governor of the Reserve Bank) forecasts only 1% growth. Heck,...

Economy Stats SA reports that retail sales registered pedestrian growth of just 0.2% yoy for the first quarter of this year. It is estimated that our GDP may have dropped by about 2% quarter-on-quarter. Mining output had plunged 8.1% in February and had contracted...

Economy Business confidence dropped further to 91.8% in March, holds the SA Chamber of Commerce’s BCI. The primary factors contributing to this are the Rand exchange rate, interrupted power supply, electricity tariff increases and slowing manufacturing output. On the...

Economy Skills: a note written by Bernstein, head of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, attracted my attention: she wrote on what was necessary to prime the virtuous cycle of growth. Our politicians, in seeking to attract votes, make wild promises which can...

Economy StatsSA reports that our government’s gross loan debt stands at R2.2trl at present and should stabilise at R3.5tln. This equates to a present debt of R40 000 per person in South Africa. For a country where the long-term per capita income is expected to trend...

Economy The KZN in government has ambitions to bulk-buy for spaza shops: socialist drivel from a bunch who cannot properly distribute condoms. Rationality in retreat: the upcoming elections do not serve as a platform to establish a rational and sustainable economic...

Economy Goldman Sachs has suggested that the global economy may have bottomed out and that green shoots are emerging. The Daily Maverick reported that the cost of state capture over the second term of the Zuma administration cost around R1.5trillian: this is...