News in South Africa 26th May: 1. Rand plunged to new record low: The rand crashed to a new record low overnight, reaching R19.8279/$ on Thursday night. The currency has now lost almost 26% of its value over the past year. In the past two weeks alone, since the US accusation that Russia received arms […]
News in South Africa 22nd May: 1. Stage 8 all but certain: Business interest group BLSA says that stage 8 load shedding is all but certain in the coming months, warning that companies relying on diesel to keep their operations going during outages will be hit even harder as the lights go out for as […]
News in South Africa 9th May: 1. Rand remains weak: South Africa’s rand remains in a weak position as it awaits a shift in global markets, says Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop. Despite firming slightly on Monday (8 May) amid a softer dollar, the local unit has been sitting around R18.30/USD for some time. According […]
News in South Africa 19th April: 1. Zero economic growth for SA: Many experts project close to zero economic growth for 2023 as severe load-shedding has hobbled the country’s growth prospects. In 2022, the economy grew by 2.5% – above the 1.9% proposed by the minister of finance in the medium-term expenditure framework. Economic growth […]
News in South Africa 12th April: 1. Home Affairs in termination of ZEP system: One of the most important human rights cases of recent decades got underway in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, with no fewer than four separate cases challenging Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) […]
News in South Africa 22nd February: 1. Finance budget speech today: Finance minister Enoch Godongwana will on the 22 February 2023 (today) deliver his budget speech. Child support grant: Human rights group Black Sash has called for the National Treasury to double the cost of the child support grant from R480 to over R800. The […]
News in South Africa 26th January: 1. Sarb expected to moderate rate hikes: South Africa’s central bank is set to moderate its most aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle in at least two decades Thursday, and economists and traders will be on high alert for any signs of a pivot away from policy tightening. The median expectation […]
News in South Africa 23rd January: 1. Interest rate decision: South Africa’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold its first meeting of the year to decide on interest rates on Thursday, and while economists agree that the central bank will continue to hike rates, they are split on the size of the increase. Last year was […]
News in South Africa 19th January: 1. Eskom diesel nightmare: Eskom is living hand-to-mouth in its efforts to obtain the diesel needed to continue running its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), which, in the face of prolonged power generation outages, is the only way the utility can stave off severe and ongoing curtailment of South Africa’s […]
News in South Africa 17th January: 1. Hardships pile up for consumers: Economists are raising red flags over higher inflation rates, which will invariably lead to more interest rate hikes from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as South Africans continue to sit under the pressure of high levels of load shedding and a massive […]
