ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria hopes changes it has made to gold mining regulation will earn the government $500 million a year in royalties and taxes and create 250,000 jobs, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday.



The reforms have made artisanal mining legal and will create gold buying centres and tax trade of the precious metal, Buhari said in a statement.



“These operations will help in diversifying our revenue base,” said Buhari.



Nigerian authorities have said illegal mining, prominent in the northwest, has fuelled widespread violence they attribute to “bandits”. Thousands of people have been killed in the region in recent years and swathes of the region are inaccessible. The military is deployed to tackle the insecurity but the conflict shows little sign of ending.



The extra revenues from gold could be a lifeline as the coronavirus pandemic and resulting global oil price crash cut off much of the state’s income.



Buhari said the country has lost a total of $3 billion from 2012 to 2018 because of illegal gold mining.



In February, Nigeria licensed two gold refineries mainly to produce gold for the central bank to hold in its reserves but also for export. The bank received its first locally-produced gold bar on Thursday.



Nigeria has largely untapped deposits of 44 minerals including gold, iron ore, coal, tin and zinc, in more than 500 locations, but mining makes up just 0.3% of the economy.

Muhammadu_Buhari_-_Chatham_House

Nigeria hopes gold mining reforms can bring in $500 mln a year

Ethiopia’s Water Minister Seleshi Bekele confirmed on Wednesday, July 15, that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has started to fill.



He tweeted: “The inflow into the reservoir due to heavy rainfall and runoff exceeded the outflow and created natural pooling. This continues until overflow is triggered soon.”



He repeated this line to the state broadcaster, saying that the reservoir was filling “in line with the natural process” and that “[t]he construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand&#8221;.



Satellite images show that the reservoir behind the almost completed dam wall is starting to fill, but Mr Bekele failed to address the question of whether or not the country closed the dam’s culverts.



His pronouncements followed a breakdown in African Union (AU) mediated talks – involving Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan – on Tuesday, July 14, about the filling and operation of the GERD.



According to experts, the current stage of construction on the dam wall means that water will inevitably back up until the reservoir reaches its low point. The dam – with a mammoth capacity of 74 billion cubic metres (bcm) – is estimated to retain 4.9 bcm in 2020, with another 13.5 bcm to be retained the following year.



The total annual flow of the Blue Nile – the main tributary to the Nile – is about 49 bcm.



One of the main obstacles to reaching an agreement has been the schedule for filling the dam: Ethiopia proposes five to seven years and Egypt insists on 12 to 20 years.



Egypt and Sudan want a dispute resolution mechanism built into the agreement as well as assurances about water flows during times of drought.



Cairo has accused Addis Ababa of abandoning the 2015 Declaration of Principles, one of which is that the dam should not be filled without an agreement being in place.



The GERD is set to become the continent’s largest hydroelectric project and is expected to generate 6,000 MW of electricity per year, once fully operational, in a country which currently has low levels of electrification. It is central to Ethiopia’s developmental aspirations and the project has created a great deal of national pride, both due to its scale and ambition but also due to the way in which the country opted to finance the mega-project, making using of mostly domestic financing.



The confrontation with Egypt, specifically, has boosted Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s standing domestically, with the country seen to be standing up to its northern counterpart and, following its refusal to sign a US-sponsored agreement in Washington DC in February, its powerful allies.



With Ethiopia riven by ethnic tensions and deadly communal violence sparked by the targeted killing of prominent musician and ethnic rights activist, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, in the capital on June 29, Mr Abiy will probably not mind the diplomatic spat with Egypt at a time when his pan-Ethiopian project is being threatened by internecine conflict.



Mr Abiy is also dealing with the political uncertainty created by Parliament’s decision to postpone the country’s general elections to “nine to 12 months after the coronavirus is deemed not to be a public health concern&#8221;, along with an extension of the prime minister’s term.



Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi finds himself in a very different position. Cairo is being made to look quite impotent as Ethiopia presents the filling of the GERD as fait accompli.



We previously said that their decision to proceed unilaterally would increase regional tensions and give rise to significant sabre-rattling from the parties involved. However, we said we did not expect the dispute to escalate into a military confrontation, despite some inflammatory comments from both Egyptian and Ethiopian officials, and we stand by that assessment.



It should be noted that Egypt has a large and sophisticated military – receiving significant military aid from the US – and that military figures play a crucial role in the government.



Specifically, Egypt has a modern and well-equipped air force. It does not possess strategic long-range bombers or long-range ballistic missile capacity; nevertheless, Ethiopia reportedly deployed anti-aircraft missiles in the vicinity of the Renaissance Dam in May in what was seen as a symbolic rather than strategic move.



The filling of the GERD without an agreement in place was not entirely unexpected and Ethiopian officials made it known that it would happen with the arrival of the rainy season.



Previous talks sponsored by the US and World Bank proved unsuccessful, partly due to Ethiopia’s perception that Egypt’s close ties to the US made Washington a biased arbiter.



It had been hoped that AU-brokered talks would deliver an agreement, and the lack of progress in that respect is concerning.



Egypt has also approached the UN Security Council to pressure Ethiopia, resulting in angry exchanges between ambassadors.



Over the short to medium term, regional tensions will remain heightened and diplomatic efforts are sure to continue. More provocative statements by officials from the affected countries are also expected, making efforts to reach an agreement all the more difficult.



Louw Nel – Political Analyst

River Nile

Nile Valley – Ethiopia starts to fill Renaissance Dam as Egypt bristles

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African renewable energy companies are looking for ways to make savings on their debt so they can help the government lower power tariffs from older solar and wind projects, the country’s wind energy association SAWEA said on Thursday. The government opened talks with the renewable energy sector last year to try to secure cheaper electricity to support the flagging economy. SAWEA said it could take four to six months for companies to negotiate new terms with lenders. Refinancing options include increasing debt maturities or changing types of debt. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African renewable energy companies are looking for ways to make savings on their debt so they can help the government lower power tariffs from older solar and wind projects, the country’s wind energy association SAWEA said on Thursday. The government opened talks with the renewable energy sector last year to try to secure cheaper electricity to support the flagging economy. SAWEA said it could take four to six months for companies to negotiate new terms with lenders. Refinancing options include increasing debt maturities or changing types of debt. The government would pass on its share of the gain to consumers through lower tariffs, a refinancing protocol prepared by the energy ministry showed. When the government approached renewables companies last year about ways to lower power prices, many companies said big savings were impossible to achieve. But they said sharing gains from a refinancing exercise was an option that was unlikely to harm investor sentiment and could contribute to lower tariffs.

20200716_154957

S.Africa renewables firms look for debt savings to lower tariffs

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) &#8211; The reservoir behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is filling, its water minister said on Wednesday, a day after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the giant Blue Nile hydroelectric project stalled.



Sudan and Egypt both fear the $4 billion dam could lead to water shortages in their own nations.



“The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Ethiopian Water Minister Seleshi Bekele said in televised comments, a transcript of which was provided to Reuters by his office. “The filling of the dam doesn’t need to wait until the completion of the dam.”



The water level had increased from 525 metres to 560 metres, he said.



The comments by Seleshi did not address whether Ethiopia had closed the gates of the dam. The area has also seen recent heavy rainfall.



“My understanding of his statement is that they have not closed the outlets,” said Dina Mufti, a spokesman for the foreign ministry.



Seleshi had tweeted earlier in the day: “The inflow into the reservoir due to heavy rainfall and runoff exceeded the outflow and created natural pooling. This continues until overflow is triggered soon.”



The minister, his spokesman, and the spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office did not return calls seeking clarification.



The project has raised concerns in Egypt that already limited Nile waters, which its 100 million people depend on heavily, will be further restricted. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile from which Egypt gets 90% of its fresh water.



Egypt asked Ethiopia for urgent clarification on whether it had started filling the reservoir, the foreign ministry said.



On Tuesday, talks between the three nations to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach agreement.



U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Secretary General Antonio Guterres had urged the three countries to “seize the opportunity in the coming days to bridge remaining differences and reach a mutually beneficial agreement for their peoples”.



The dam, when finished, will have an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts &#8211; more than doubling Ethiopia’s existing capacity &#8211; and is the centrepiece of the country’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.



The dam is being built about 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Sudan. Sudan and Egypt have sought a legally binding agreement before the dam is filled.



Sudan’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said it was prompted to investigate after satellite images appeared to show the reservoir filling.



“It was evident from the flow meters in the al-Deim border station with Ethiopia that there is a retreat in the water levels, equivalent to 90 million cubic meters per day, confirming the closure of the gates of the Renaissance Dam,” it said in a statement.



Sudan rejects any unilateral actions taken by any party as negotiating efforts continue, it said.

Bridges_across_the_Blue_Nile_Gorge

Ethiopia dam reservoir filling as talks with Egypt, Sudan stall

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand was weaker in early trade on Thursday, pausing a recent rally to one-month highs as disappointing Chinese consumption data dampened investor hopes of a quick economic recovery from the coronavirus.



At 0730 GMT the rand was 0.47% weaker at 16.6775 per dollar from the previous session’s best of 16.5075.



Wednesday’s rally, across most emerging market assets, was spurred by progress in finding a vaccine to counter the pandemic by U.S. firm Moderna, whose experimental vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses to the novel coronavirus in all 45 healthy volunteers.



But China’s unexpected drop in retail sales &#8211; for a fifth straight month &#8211; poured water on the enthusiasm and saw some investors run for cover in safe-haven assets.



“The rand is trading on the back foot as demand for the USD recovered overnight,” market economists at ETM Analytics said in a note.



“Should the market’s spotlight once again shift away from the rising coronavirus caseload and simmering US-Sino tensions, however, the local unit could have a second attempt at the 16.50/$ level.”



Bonds also weakened, with the yield on the benchmark 2030 government issue up 2 basis points to 9.38%.

south-africa-cape-town-griqua-town-r5-griqua-town-coin

S.African rand slips as weak China data overshadows vaccine hope

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows rose in the first quarter of 2020, to 29.0 billion rand ($1.74 billion) compared to inflows of 10.5 billion rand in the final quarter of last year, the central bank said on Thursday.



“South Africa’s direct investment liabilities increased &#8230; mainly as a result of the foreign acquisition of a domestic manufacturer and distributor of food and beverage products,” the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its quarterly bulletin.



Local competition authorities approved United States food giant PepsiCo’s $1.7 billion takeover of food and drinks producer Pioneer Food Group in February.



At the same time, portfolio investments, reflecting a record of buying and selling of securities such as bonds and shares, showed a sharp outflow, of 97.6 billion rand in the first quarter compared to inflows of 9.3 billion rand in fourth quarter of 2019.



Non-residents sold bonds worth 74.4 billion in the first quarter, while selling 23.1 billion rand in equities, the bank said in the analytical release.



South Africa saw aggressive selling of government bonds in March and April as the novel coronavirus struck, forcing the central bank to enforce emergency liquidity measures and launch a quantitative easing style purchase of bonds in the secondary market.



($1 = 16.6576 rand)

adversting-blue-can-cold-drink

South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows rise to $1.7 bln in Q1

BEIJING (Reuters) &#8211; China said on Thursday it will stick to the Phase 1 trade deal it reached with the United States earlier this year but warned that it will respond to “bullying” tactics from Washington, as relations continue to deteriorate.



Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also invited U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to come to China and visit the western Xinjiang region to see that there are no human rights violations, responding to Washington’s sanctions and accusations of wrongdoing against the Uighur Muslim minorities who live there.



Relations between Beijing and Washington are at the worst in decades as the two countries clash on multiple fronts including China’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, the new national security law in Hong Kong, trade and the accusations of human rights crimes in Xinjiang.



Washington on Tuesday removed special status designation for Hong Kong and imposed sanctions against top Chinese officials and companies over Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Beijing condemned the moves and vowed to retaliate.



The New York Times reported that the United States is considering a travel ban against all members of China’s ruling Communist Party, a move that will further strain an increasingly confrontational relationship.



Hua told reporters during a daily briefing that such a ban, if true, would be “pathetic.”



Asked whether the recent sanctions imposed by Washington will impact the trade deal, Hua told reporters that China hopes the agreement can still be implemented.



“We always implement our commitments but we know that some in the U.S. are oppressing China and bullying China,” she said. “As an independent sovereign state China must respond to the bullying practices by the U.S. side; we must say no, we must make responses and take reactive moves to it.”



Hua also called Washington’s accusations of human rights crimes against the Uighur minorities the “biggest lies of the century”.



“We welcome him (Pompeo) to travel to our country and see what the Xinjiang people’s view of him is,” she said. “I could introduce him to some Uighur friends.”

china

China says will stick with U.S. trade deal, but respond to ‘bullying’

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) production of platinum group metal (PGM) fell by 41% or 521,600 ounces in the second quarter because of shutdowns in South Africa and Zimbabwe due to coronavirus crisis, it said on Thursday. Total PGM production for the quarter was 665,100 ounces, Amplats said.

20200716_095920

Amplats platinum output fell 41% in second quarter

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; A failure by South Africa to lower public debt risks triggering credit downgrades deeper into subinvestment, Fitch said on Wednesday. Debt in Africa’s most industrialized economy is set to breach 80% of gross domestic product next year as the government borrows more to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. Fitch downgraded South Africa’s credit rating deeper into “junk” territory in April, citing the lack of a clear path towards debt stabilisation and higher economic growth. The other top ratings firms, Moody’s and S&amp;P, also rate the country at sub-investment grades. “A continued rise in government debt/GDP and failure to formulate a clear and credible path towards stabilising the government debt/GDP ratio could lead to a further downgrade in South Africa’s ‘BB’ rating, which is on Negative Outlook,” said Jan Friederich, Fitch’s head of Africa sovereign ratings. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said in an emergency budget in June the Treasury would stick to its promise of some 230 billion rand ($13.5 billion) of spending cuts in the short term, a target set in February before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Social and political factors, including exceptionally high inequality, powerful trade unions, and deep divisions within the governing African National Congress, present significant hurdles to fiscal consolidation,” Friederich said in a research report.

Fitch Ratings

South Africa’s failure to lower debt could trigger downgrade – Fitch

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s cases of COVID-19 were set to reach 300,000 on Wednesday, the most in Africa and in the top 10 in the world, despite a swiftly imposed lockdown aimed at preventing infections spiralling as they did in the West. Africa’s most industrialised nation has 298,292 cases at the last count, and with positive tests now increasing at a rate of more than 10,000 a day, it is all but certain to vault over the 300,000 mark when the ministry releases nightly figures on Wednesday. At the end of March, President Cyril Ramaphosa took aggressive, early action, shutting shops, ordering people to stay at home and sending the army on to the streets to enforce it &#8211; when South Africa had only 400 cases and no recorded deaths. The government later eased many curbs over fears for its struggling economy. But with the world’s fourth-largest daily increase in coronavirus cases in a country of 58 million people, an exasperated Ramaphosa on Sunday reimposed an alcohol ban and a night curfew. “South Africa went into lockdown &#8230; so early, (it looked) &#8230; really impressive,” said Charles Robertson, a senior economist at Renaissance Capital, who has been closely tracking the coronavirus. “What became clear is that lockdowns don’t work in low-income countries,” he said. “In informal economies, (people) &#8230; can’t afford to stay at home.” About half of South Africans live in poverty, and about a third are unemployed &#8211; some 3 million have lost their jobs since the lockdown began, according to a study by South Africa’s Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) released on Tuesday. In many parts of the country, COVID-19 wards are packed, so patients are spilling out into other bits of hospitals and into tents outside, health officials say. “The storm that we have consistently warned South Africans about is now arriving,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament. At just 4,346 deaths, barely 1.5% of cases have proved fatal so far, in part because of a young population. That will rise as shortages of oxygen and hospital beds worsen. Ramaphosa said scientists had predicted up to 50,000 deaths. “We are seeing a system that’s under pressure, not under disaster collapse &#8230; But it’s taking a huge strain,” Charl van Loggerenberg, head of emergency medicine at Life Healthcare, which has private hospitals treating COVID patients across the country, told Reuters. At public hospitals, which were struggling with capacity anyway, medics have complained about a lack of staff and protective equipment. “Not enough health workers have been hired, our requests for PPE have been ignored, guidelines are not being followed,” said Sibongiseni Delihlazo, spokesman for the main nurses’ union. Gauteng, the province at the epicentre and home to the biggest city, Johannesburg, is adding beds, setting up field hospitals, and boosting numbers of medical workers, said Kwara Kekana, a spokeswoman for the provincial health department.

20200715_192019

S.Africa COVID-19 cases set to reach 300,000 despite early lockdown

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia has started filling the Grand Renaissance dam, a giant hydroelectric project it is building on the Blue Nile, its water minister said on Wednesday, a day after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the issue became deadlocked. “The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Seleshi Bekele said in comments broadcast on television. On Tuesday, talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to regulate the flow of water from the hydropower dam on the Blue Nile failed to reach agreement. The dam is the centrepiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, but it has raised concerns in Cairo that already limited Nile waters, on which its population of more than 100 million people is almost entirely dependent, would be further restricted.

20200715_171956

Ethiopia starts filling Grand Renaissance dam, minister says

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s state utility Eskom cannot say how long a new round of power cuts that began on Friday will last, its spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha told Reuters. Eskom implemented planned power outages for the first time since March on July 10, ending a period of unusually stable power supply thanks to reduced demand during a coronavirus lockdown. The company generates more than 90% of South Africa’s power but has battled to meet demand for years because of faults at its coal-fired power stations, which have interrupted power supplies, hampered economic growth and deterred investment. “The reality is we don’t know which of the coal units are going to fail on any given day, that is true for both the old and the new units,” Mantshantsha said. He said Eskom was sending a team led by one of its senior engineers to try to improve the performance of problem power stations. Morning peak power demand on Wednesday was at its highest this year because of extreme cold weather, compounding the generation shortfall, Mantshantsha added. Eskom said on Wednesday that it would step up load-shedding to “stage 2” from “stage 1” from 1200 GMT, requiring more supply interruptions. Stage 1 allows for up to 1,000 megawatts of the national load to be shed, and stage 2 up to 2,000 megawatts. Despite assurances from the government that it would expedite procurement of new generation capacity late last year, when Eskom implemented some of the worst power cuts on record, additional capacity has not yet been procured. “Once this bout of load-shedding is over, it would be naive to think we are done with load-shedding,” Mantshantsha said. “We don’t have a single extra megawatt since we implemented stage 6 load-shedding during summer.”

20200715_170749

South Africa’s Eskom cannot say how long latest power cuts will last

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; The Kenyan shilling was under slight pressure on Wednesday as a surge in demand from oil and merchandise importers weighed against scarce hard currency inflows, traders said. At 0728 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 107.15/35 per dollar, compared with 107.10/30 at Tuesday’s close.

oil-rig-industry-oil

Kenyan shilling weakens a touch as importer demand surges

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Like many of her compatriots, Kubashnee Moodley made her first foray into online shopping during South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown. She is not a satisfied customer. The 42-year-old business management coach was once charged for a parcel she never received and also had groceries delivered to her Johannesburg home after dark. “I was not going to risk going to the gate &#8230; especially with crime so high,” she said. Moodley’s experience encapsulates the challenging situation facing the e-commerce sector in Africa’s most advanced economy. Having long lagged behind much of the world in terms of e-commerce, South African retailers and delivery start-ups have been doing a roaring trade online as consumers shy away from shops during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the likes of Pick n Pay, Checkers and OneDayOnly experiencing an explosion in demand. But this post-COVID boom is straining the capacity of even the largest retailers, leaving some customers complaining of long wait times and poor service. The ability to alleviate those growing pains will dictate which companies emerge as e-commerce leaders and which will be left behind. Factors such as fear of parcel theft, online fraud and high mobile data costs have long hindered South African e-commerce growth, experts say. Global e-commerce leviathan Amazon does not operate in the economy of 58 million consumers, partly because of the cost and challenges of setting up the required infrastructure, analysts say. And African giant Jumia only launched in South Africa this year. Amazon, the vast majority of whose customers have to rely on cross-border shopping at its 16 websites around the world, declined to comment. ONLINE LAGGARD E-commerce accounted for only 1.6%, or $1.2 billion, of South African retail sales in 2019, according to London-based market research firm Euromonitor International. In the United States, the figure is 14.8%. Even Kenya shops more online than its larger neighbour. However, Euromonitor expects sales to double this year while Nielsen South Africa’s retail lead analyst Gareth Paterson predicts up to 200% growth in online food purchases. A survey conducted by Visa found that 64% of consumers in South Africa bought groceries online for the first time because of the coronavirus outbreak and that 53% made their first online purchase from a pharmacy. When lockdown restrictions imposed in late March were loosened in May, market researcher Urban Studies found that only 50-70% of customers returned to shopping centres. “This was the quantum shift,” said Anthony Thunstrom, chief executive of clothing and homeware retailer TFG. “We probably advanced two to three years in terms of online demand because of COVID-19.” Nikki Lincoln, a 34-year-old communications specialist, thought shopping online would spare her the “unnecessary risk” of going out during the pandemic. “Woolworths has closed off online deliveries for my area, so I can’t shop there at all. And Pick n Pay has such a long waiting time you might as well just go to the shop,” she said, naming two of South Africa’s leading supermarket chains. CAPACITY BOOST Woolworths said that home delivery suspensions were temporary, resulting from an employee testing positive for the virus, but acknowledged that increased demand had caused delays. In April it launched a drive-through click-and-collect service, boosting its online capacity by 50%. When the lockdown began, Pick n Pay partnered with Bottles, an alcohol delivery app that expanded into groceries with the promise of same-day service. “Our enhancements last year to create a stronger online operation &#8230; enabled us to expand our offer in response to the demand for online shopping. Our team rapidly increased its capacity and reach and met the needs of many new customers,” Jessica Knight, head of online at Pick n Pay, said without commenting specifically on delays. Sixty60 &#8211; a grocery delivery app run by Shoprite’s Checkers supermarkets &#8211; backed away from hourly dispatching, opting instead for same-day delivery. It is now expanding its delivery area weekly. Companies hoping to compete, therefore, are quickly pumping money into their e-commerce offerings even as they feel the pain of a pandemic-induced economic downturn. Grocery delivery business Zulzi was forced to limit trading to two hours a day for two weeks after shoppers overwhelmed its app, but it has since quadrupled the number of shoppers and drivers it employs and doubled its customer care staff. It is now processing 2,000 orders a day &#8211; five times 2019 levels &#8211; and has done a year’s worth of turnover in the past two months. TFG, the brands of which include @home, Foschini and Markham, plans to raise 3.95 billion rand ($234.2 million) this month, partly to bolster its e-commerce business. ($1 = 16.8698 rand)

20200715_125030

South African e-commerce is a COVID-fired market of risk and reward

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand firmed in early trade on Wednesday ahead of consumer inflation data and as hopes of economic recovery increased global risk appetite. At 0645 GMT the rand was up 0.31% at 16.6800 per dollar against an overnight close of 16.7325, tracking a rising euro, which led the way as the greenback continued to wobble. The euro, a barometer for global risk demand, rose to a four-month high against the dollar on expectations European Union leaders may agree on stimulus and deepening fiscal integration to shield the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most emerging currencies followed suit as renewed hopes of a faster global economic recovery drove demand for riskier, but high-yielding currencies, such as the rand, which has managed to brush-off signs of a weak local economy. Consumer inflation data for South Africa due at 0800 GMT is set to show price-growth at even lower levels than last month’s 15-year low, boosting the chances of another lending rate cut when the local central bank meets later in July. Hopes of progress in finding a vaccine to counter the pandemic added to the positive mood. Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses to the novel coronavirus in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study, U.S. researchers

101416618-rand

S. Africa’s rand firms as growth, vaccine hopes drive mood for risk

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s inflation was at 737.26% year-on-year in June compared to 785.55% the previous month, as prices of basic goods continue to rise beyond the reach of most citizens, Zimstat, a state statistics body, said on Tuesday.



On a month-on-month basis, inflation jumped to 31.66% from 15.23% previously. Inflation in the southern African nation is one of the highest in the world.

grocery-store-man-shopping-royalty-free-thumbnail

Zimbabwe inflation at 737.26% y/y in June – Zimstat

GABORONE (Reuters) &#8211; Botswana expects its economy to shrink by 8.9% in 2020, less severe than its previous forecast for a 13.3% contraction, boosted by better than expected mining output and a shorter lockdown, the central bank said on Tuesday.



“The ministry of finance now sees a lower economic contraction in 2020. The first number was based on an assumption of a longer lockdown and larger contraction in mining activities,” said Tshokologo Kganetsano, director of research and financial stability at the central bank.

Newsletter

Nigeria hopes gold mining reforms can bring in $500 mln a year

Nile Valley – Ethiopia starts to fill Renaissance Dam as Egypt bristles

S.Africa renewables firms look for debt savings to lower tariffs

Ethiopia dam reservoir filling as talks with Egypt, Sudan stall

S.African rand slips as weak China data overshadows vaccine hope

South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows rise to $1.7 bln in Q1

China says will stick with U.S. trade deal, but respond to ‘bullying’

Amplats platinum output fell 41% in second quarter

South Africa’s failure to lower debt could trigger downgrade – Fitch

S.Africa COVID-19 cases set to reach 300,000 despite early lockdown

Ethiopia starts filling Grand Renaissance dam, minister says

South Africa’s Eskom cannot say how long latest power cuts will last

Kenyan shilling weakens a touch as importer demand surges

South African e-commerce is a COVID-fired market of risk and reward

S. Africa’s rand firms as growth, vaccine hopes drive mood for risk

Zimbabwe inflation at 737.26% y/y in June – Zimstat

Botswana expects smaller economic contraction in 2020

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletter

Nigeria hopes gold mining reforms can bring in $500 mln a year

Nile Valley – Ethiopia starts to fill Renaissance Dam as Egypt bristles

S.Africa renewables firms look for debt savings to lower tariffs

Ethiopia dam reservoir filling as talks with Egypt, Sudan stall

S.African rand slips as weak China data overshadows vaccine hope

South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows rise to $1.7 bln in Q1

China says will stick with U.S. trade deal, but respond to ‘bullying’

Amplats platinum output fell 41% in second quarter

South Africa’s failure to lower debt could trigger downgrade – Fitch

S.Africa COVID-19 cases set to reach 300,000 despite early lockdown

Ethiopia starts filling Grand Renaissance dam, minister says

South Africa’s Eskom cannot say how long latest power cuts will last

Kenyan shilling weakens a touch as importer demand surges

South African e-commerce is a COVID-fired market of risk and reward

S. Africa’s rand firms as growth, vaccine hopes drive mood for risk

Zimbabwe inflation at 737.26% y/y in June – Zimstat

Botswana expects smaller economic contraction in 2020

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters