News in South Africa 20th February: 1. Rand weakens: The rand has weakened with the market worried about South Africa’s marked fiscal slippage. In the 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MBTPS), gross debt was projected to peak at 77.7% of GDP in 2025/26, far higher than February 2023’s Budget estimate of 73.6%. Investec Chief Economist […]
News in South Africa 17th January: 1. Social unrest warning: South Africa is becoming increasingly fragile as it loses key social cohesion functions, risking increased violence, dissatisfaction and social unrest. This is the view of Wits governance expert Professor Alex van den Heever, who told SABC News that South Africa is showing an increase in fragility. His […]
News in South Africa 12th October: 1. Foreigners flee SA stocks: Foreign investors have accelerated their (net) selling of equities on the JSE, with sales 40% greater thus far in 2023 than in the same period in 2022. To last Friday, non-SA investors sold a net R103 billion of equities, versus R73 billion in the […]
News in South Africa 3rd October: 1. SA has run out of money: South Africa is facing a severe budget shortfall, and with a stagnant, over-taxed tax base and massive debt, the government has run out of ways to raise more money. This is the warning from the South African Institute of Taxation CEO Keith […]
News in South Africa 19th September: 1. Load shedding suspended: Eskom will suspend load-shedding for an additional seven hours on Tuesday, 19 September 2023, due to improved generation capacity and reduced breakdowns. In a statement on Tuesday morning, the utility said that 13,577MW of generation capacity was unavailable due to breakdowns. Therefore, it would suspend load-shedding […]
News in South Africa 11th September: 1. SA losing $62bn annually to illegal imports: South Africa is losing more than $62 billion a year because of illicit financial flows (IFFs), which could be used to fund the building of schools, hospitals and safer roads. This was highlighted at a conference on increased illegal trading in […]
News in South Africa 31st August: 1. Rand falls after record budget deficit: The rand dropped, underperforming most emerging-market peers, and yields on South African local-currency bonds rose after data showed the government ran a record budget deficit in July. The rand weakened as much as 0.8% against the dollar after National Treasury figures showed […]
News in South Africa 10th March: 1. Ratings agencies doubtful of budget targets: Ratings agencies doubt that finance minister Tito Mboweni will meet his 2021 budget targets, highlighting the various challenges faced by South Africa in trying to stabilise its debt. Mboweni said that South Africa’s debt-to-GDP ratio will peak at 88.9% in 2023, down […]
News in South Africa 4th February: 1. 3.1 Million vaccines from Covax: South Africa is expected to get another 3.1 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine in the first half of this year. COVAX has announced that around 2.8-billion jabs from AstraZeneca and 117,000 from Pfizer should be made available to South Africa. That is if the vaccines are […]
News in South Africa 4th November: 1. FFC criticises SAA rescue: Next year is set to be a difficult year for South Africa, with government planning expenditure cuts, the question is how might this impact service delivery, Parliament has heard. The Financial and Fiscal Commission on Tuesday briefed a joint sitting of the Standing Committee […]
