May 2020

29 May 2020 – The World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for a global pandemic as the COVID-19 continues to spread. However, as of late February it had not declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019. Since then, there have been major […]

28 May 2020 – A combination of favourable crude oil price outlook, lower local inflation with risks to the downside, and economic contraction afforded the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) room to cut the repurchase rate by another 50 basis points. This brought the repo rate to a historical low of 3.75% and the prime

27 May 2020 – The SA Reserve Bank’s leading business cycle indicator declined in March, ringing in 18 months of consecutive annual declines. The leading indicator, which offers a projection of SA’s economic growth cycle for the next six to 12 months, declined 1.6% in March, a slightly slower rate of decline than February 2020’s

26 May 2020 – Producer inflation will be in focus this week, with economists expecting the fall in international oil prices to have had a dampening effect on the March print. Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan said the producer price index  (PPI) for March is expected to have slowed to 3.5% year on year from 4.5%

25 May 2020 – In a statement, it says it means the country’s credit ratings by S&P remain non-investment grade In April, the same ratings agency lowered the country’s credit rating out of its normal schedule due to the “significant adverse implications” of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s already-weakened economy. According to S&P, South Africa’s fiscal

22 May 2020 – The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) has effectively slashed its repo rate by just over 42% within the first five months of this year, largely in response to the Covid-19 economic turmoil. That’s the word from independent economist Mike Schüssler, following the bank announcing a 50 basis point (bp) repo rate

21 May 2020 – Interest rates may drop further this week to levels close to those last seen in the 1970s as the Reserve Bank seeks to bolster South Africa’s ailing economy. Economists expect a cut in borrowing costs of between 25-basis and 50 basis points today following a meeting of the bank’s monetary policy

20 May 2020 – Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reports that manufacturing production decreased by 2.1% in February. The largest negative contributors were basic iron and steel, nonferrous metal products, metal products and machinery, contracting by 4.8% and contributing -0.9 of a percentage point; and wood and wood paper products, paper, publishing and printing, contracting

19 May 2020 – The novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 first broke out in the port city of Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The economic impact of the global lockdown is harshly felt, with the global freight and shipping industry being the biggest casualties. Global shipping markets have now declined, with the collapse in demand

18 May 2020 – Trade conditions worsened in April during the harshest weeks of SA’s stage-5 lockdown, with little expectation that they will improve in the coming months, data from the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) showed on Thursday. The trade conditions survey – which measures conditions across a range of sectors –