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SA Minister of Finance vs President Zuma: The Final Act Approaching
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 12 Oct 2016 · 1 response

The SA political economy stage has become noisier, busier and more confusing over the past 24 hours. Generally speaking, the country’s governance dynamics has become akin to a complex plot of modern day movie, with a mix of suspense, thrill, drama, law, and political skull-doggery, playing out in...

Minister of Finance Under Attack Again: Can it be the President's Last Attempt?
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 11 Oct 2016

Hot on the heel of President Zuma's potential reinstatement of 837 cases of fraud, corruption and racketeering, together with Public Protector's statement that she is going to go public about the case of State Capture (with President Zuma as the key role player) on Friday this week, the National ...

The South African Reserve Bank Continues its Rate Hike Pause
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 22 Sep 2016 · 1 response

The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee has once again decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at 7%. This marks the third consecutive time that the SARB did not change the repo rate since increasing it during the MPC’s March 2016 meeting. The prime lending rate has also ef...

Current Account Deficit Eases in Q2 2016
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 13 Sep 2016

Just as the market expected, the deficit on the current account narrowed in the second quarter of 2016. Expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit on the current account eased to 3.1% in Q2 2016, from an upwardly adjusted 5.3% (previously 5%) in Q1 2016.

South Africa’s Economy Expands in 2Q 2016
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 06 Sep 2016

According to the official gross domestic product (GDP) data released by Statistics South Africa today, the economy expanded by 3.3% on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualized basis; the highest since the 4.1% recorded in the last quarter of 2014. Today’s higher than expected performan...

SA Political Economy: The Zuma-Gordhan Fog is Lifting- slowly!
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 02 Sep 2016

After weeks and weeks of ugly spats between the warring factions within the ANC, and following two weeks of non-stop political wrestling between the President and the Minister of Finance, today the Cabinet made its first statement, indicating some kind of a truce; or at least the end of open poli...

SA Minister of Finance vs The President- Week 2
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 29 Aug 2016

During the past week, the SA political economy scene has been the stage for a high level drama, unfolding episode by episode in full view of the nation. The main actor, the Minister of Finance; the script writers, it is believed to be, the President and his men. The goal, it appears, is none othe...

SA Minister of Finance Under Political Pressure Again
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 24 Aug 2016 · 1 response

Yesterday afternoon, the SA organised crime fighting unit, The Hawks, revived their public pressure on Mr Paravin Gordhan, the SA Minister of Finance. Whatever the legal merit or otherwise of the Hawk's case against Minister Gordhan, the real reason for piling political pressures on him has serio...

South African Local Government Elections 2016: The ANC Loses Control of Major Metropolitan Centers
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 22 Aug 2016

At last much of the post-election tension, deal-making, and coalition speculation is over. Today, the opposition parties, made primarily of Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), took control of South Africa's economic and financial capital- the Johannesburg Metropolitan. T...

South African Local Elections: Preliminary Results & Potential Consequences
SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 05 Aug 2016

Over the past 48 hours, SA Local Government (Municipal) Elections (LGE 2016) results have been taking shape gradually and systemically. The country's Independent Electoral Commission(IEC) conducted its largest election exercise since 1994 within a fairly professional, tightly secure, and totally ...

An Unsurprising Move by the Reserve Bank not to Hike Interest Rates
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 21 Jul 2016

​The South African Reserve Bank announced today it was keeping the benchmark interest rate at 7%, meaning that the prime lending rate would also remain at 10.5%. This was the second time in a row this year that the MPC decided not to increase the repo rate (decreasing the rate has not been an opt...

The Test of SA Democracy: August 2016 Elections
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 20 Jul 2016

On August 3, 2016, South Africa will hold its nationwide local government elections. Since its last local government elections in 2011, much has changed in the country’s political economy landscape. The governing tripartite alliance of the ANC, the SA Communist Party (SACP) and COSATU has been to...

The South African Economy in Dire Need of a Confidence Boost
SOUTH AFRICA · Forecast · 11 Jul 2016

• Economic Growth: On the whole, the South African economy appears to have been stuck in a down phase since 2012 (i.e. when not counting the recession period following the financial crisis). The economy contracted during the first quarter of 2016, and we expect overall growth for 2016 to not exce...

Deterioration in the Current Account Balance Persists
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 14 Jun 2016 · 1 response

After easing to 3.1% during the second quarter of 2015 from 5.1% in the first quarter, the deficit on the current account as a percentage of GDP has been rising steadily since the third quarter of 2015, and registered 5.0% in the first quarter of 2016. The widening of the current account deficit ...

GDP Contracts in the First Quarter of 2016
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 08 Jun 2016

The South African economy began the year on a negative note as the quarter-on-quarter (q/q) and seasonally annualized GDP contracted by 1.2% during the first quarter of 2016, as reported by Statistics South Africa. This followed downwardly adjusted growth of only 0.4% during the last quarter of 2...

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