Africa Economics Weekly Africa Economic Weekly: The rand's shaky outlook, Angola's latest Article IV The rand may have rallied this week on the news that South Africa’s current account deficit narrowed in 2024, but we think worse terms of trade, GNU instability and the associated risks in the public... 7th March 2025 · 6 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: SA budget dispute, Russia-Ukraine and Africa, G20 South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the 2025 Budget in less than two weeks, but the past few days have only underlined the widening divide between the two main parties of the... 28th February 2025 · 7 mins read
Africa Economics Update Angola’s path to avoiding default is narrowing The threat of lower oil prices and the Angolan government’s apparent reluctance to push through (further) fiscal consolidation measures has raised the risk that it will be the next African sovereign... 27th February 2025 · 5 mins read
Long Run Economic Outlook Global megatrends will outweigh Trump disruption President Trump’s trade and other policies might cause turbulence over the next few years, but they are unlikely to derail the megatrends which will shape the global economy in the long run. We still... 25th February 2025 · 1 hr, 8 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: SA Budget fallout, Nigeria’s CPI revamp South Africa is still reeling from this week’s surprise last minute Budget postponement due to divisions within the ruling coalition. We suspect some form of compromise will be reached in the coming... 21st February 2025 · 6 mins read
Africa Rapid Response South Africa 2025 Budget Postponed The eleventh-hour unprecedented postponement of South Africa’s 2025 Budget due to disagreements within the Government of National Unity on tax policy, suggest that it is domestic rather than foreign... 19th February 2025 · 2 mins read
Africa Economics Update SA: economy likely to have rebounded in late-2024 South Africa’s hard activity data for December were generally disappointing but it’s still likely that the economy rebounded in Q4 of last year following a surprise contraction in Q3. We expect the... 19th February 2025 · 3 mins read
Africa Economics Update Nigeria: inflation revamp unlikely to change policy path Nigeria’s headline inflation rate came in at 24.5% y/y in January after the national statistics office made substantial methodological changes and, while we do not yet have the full information to... 18th February 2025 · 3 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: SA Budget 2025, Trump Protectionism In South Africa, next week will see the Treasury present its budget for 2025, an event in which we think the government will struggle to balance the trade-offs of recommitting to fiscal tightening... 14th February 2025 · 7 mins read
Africa Chart Pack Africa Chart Pack (Feb. 2025) Falling inflation and looser monetary policy will help GDP growth to accelerate across Sub-Saharan Africa this year. A shift towards trade protectionism in the US will hurt certain sectors in some... 13th February 2025 · 0 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: SA SONA: Growth, fiscal discipline and Trump President Ramaphosa used his State of the Nation Address (SONA) to recommit to fiscal discipline and investment-led growth, but the government will struggle to balance the two objectives. And we doubt... 7th February 2025 · 5 mins read
Africa Economics Update Mozambique’s sovereign debt outlook is perilous Mozambique’s post-election woes are mounting after another reported delay to one of its key natural gas projects. And this has led to increasing talk that the government may seek to restructure its... 6th February 2025 · 4 mins read
Africa Economics Update SA: Trump’s focus on land bill risks GNU instability The threat by President Trump to cut funding to South Africa due to the controversial land expropriation bill will (if implemented) have limited direct economic effects. The bigger concern is that the... 3rd February 2025 · 4 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: SA’s SOE “tough love”, Nigeria fuel imports, USAID South African SOEs have had a hard week, with demands for a bailout of Transnet being rebuffed and Eskom getting a smaller electricity price hike than it asked for. But perhaps the more important... 31st January 2025 · 5 mins read
Africa Economics Update SARB hawkishly cuts by 25bp The South African Reserve Bank decision to cut its repo rate by 25bp, to 7.50%, was widely expected but Governor Kganyago was more hawkish than anticipated, citing concern about US tariff threats and... 30th January 2025 · 3 mins read