Equities and currencies take divergent paths

This is the first edition of our new monthly Africa Markets Monitor. The purpose of this publication is to analyse major developments in local markets over the past month, and to give an update on our key market forecasts for sub-Saharan Africa.

A combination of improved global risk appetite and a relatively solid regional growth outlook has helped to drive the MSCI index of frontier African equities up by over 4% since the start of 2013. The Africa index has now rallied by more than 40% over the past year, and continues to outperform both the MSCI composite frontier and emerging market indices. But while equities have rallied, currencies have weakened, and the South African rand has suffered more than most.