SA industry weakness, Botswana ups De Beers stake

Data from South Africa’s industrial sector released this week were, once again, terrible. Some of the weakness reflects the impact of the energy shock, but it is also due to structural weakness in key sub-sectors. Either way, industry’s struggles will give the SARB pause for thought at next week’s MPC meeting and we expect rates be left on hold. Elsewhere, Botswana doubled its stake in diamond company De Beers this week as the government tries to increase its control over the market for natural diamonds. But this is unlikely to do much to mitigate the shock to Botswana’s economy from lab-grown diamonds.