News in South Africa 23rd August: 1. Petrol price spike: Vehicle finance group WesBank says that a weaker rand and rising oil prices are converging to deliver a blow to motorists in September. “As September approaches, the convergence of oil prices and the rand/dollar exchange rate assumes paramount significance in shaping local fuel prices,” the […]
News in South Africa 22nd August: 1. Missteps impact country growth: South Africa is suffering a death by 1,000 cuts from repeated own goals, such as the country’s elevated load-shedding levels, logistical inefficiencies, and financial greylisting. Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala told Newzroom Afrika that the negative impact of repeated missteps by South Africa is […]
News in South Africa 26th July: 1. Food price relief: South Africa’s food inflation should continue to decline, despite new risks facing agriculture in South Africa. According to Stats SA, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) cooled from 6.3% in May to 5.4% in June – the lowest reading since 5.0% in October 2021. Crucially, annual inflation […]
News in South Africa 20th July: 1. Division over interest rate hikes: Economists are divided over whether South Africa’s central bank will pause interest-rate increases on Thursday, or extend its longest phase of monetary tightening since 2006. Deteriorating inflation expectations, currency risks and enhancements to the South African Reserve Bank’s quarterly projection model, used to […]
News in South Africa 20th June: 1. Roads leading to food shortage: Farmers are being driven to desperation over the poor state of roads. Some are now maintaining roads themselves to get their produce to market. AgriSA says poorly maintained roads are just one of the many issues faced by local farmers. This results in […]
News in South Africa 24th May: 1. Grocery costs spike: South Africans are cutting down on groceries amidst challenging economic conditions. Stats SA will publish the latest Consumer Price Inflation numbers on Wednesday (24 May), with economists anticipating a slight drop to 6.9% from 7.1% in March. Inflation has remained sticky at elevated levels, sitting […]
News in South Africa 10th March: 1. Infrastructure collapsing under R79bn debt: By the end of December 2022, the total debt owed by around 100 municipalities to Eskom totalled R56.3 billion. Just 15 months prior, at the end of September 2021, total municipal debt to Eskom was R40.9 billion. That’s an increase of nearly 40% […]
News in South Africa 3rd March: 1. R2.7b solar plant coming to the Eastern Cape: The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has announced plans to construct a R2.7 billion solar power plant in the area to help deal with load shedding. The Parsons Power Park project aims to bring 150MW to the area’s grid with the […]
News in South Africa 27th February: 1. Greylisting aftermath: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed South Africa on its grey list on Friday. It was almost inevitable. The global anti-money laundering watchdog first warned the country of this possibility four years ago, in 2019, saying that there were severe deficiencies in our standards to fight […]
News in South Africa 16th January: 1. Ramaphosa stays home for power crisis: President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his visit to Switzerland to urgently attend to the energy crisis back home. Ramaphosa was scheduled to travel to Davos for the World Economic Forum summit, an annual meeting of world leaders, business and civil society which […]
