May 2021

31 May 2021 – South Africa’s economic recovery, following the knock it took during the hard Covid-19 lockdowns, is expected to accelerate from its prediction of 3.4% to 4.4% for 2021, says Nedbank. The bank, in a trading update for the four months to end April, says that though the economic environment for the period […]

28 May 2021 – Advisory multinational PwC estimates that about a quarter of under-utilisation in large manufacturing facilities in South Africa during the first quarter of the year was associated with material shortages. Data by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows that, in the first quarter, large manufacturing facilities were operating at 74% of capacity. Of the

27 May 2021 – Agrochemical prices in South Africa continued on an upward trajectory during the past year, and should this trend continue, farmers could expect to pay much more for inputs during the 2021/2022 summer grain production season. This was according to Ikageng Maluleke, Grain SA economist, who said agrochemical prices, including that of

26 May 2021 – In regular seasons, a sizeable domestic maize harvest would ordinarily lead to a decline in prices. But South Africa’s 2019/20 and 2020/21 maize production seasons have not been ordinary. The second-largest maize harvest on record in the 2019/20 production season didn’t lead to a notable decline in prices as some might

25 May 2021 – Strong quarter-on-quarter trade data from the retail, wholesale and automotive sectors all bodes well for GDP dynamics, Statistics SA has revealed. According to the Bureau for Economic Research, all three spending categories posted a quarterly expansion for the period January to March (Q1). Unfortunately, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) figures showed a marked inflation

24 May 2021 – S&P Global and Fitch Ratings affirmed South Africa’s long-term sovereign credit rating on Friday at BB-, which is three notches below investment grade. While expected, the confirmation will come as somewhat of a relief for National Treasury, which is trying to make headway in getting the country out of ‘junk’ status.

21 May 2021 – The rising cost of fertiliser and feed, steep increases in the price of maize – in addition to bird flu pressure – were weighing on the poultry industry and could add as much as R2 per kilogram to the price of chicken, producer Astral Foods said yesterday during its latest financial

Fraudsters are good at impersonating consumers and representatives of the financial institutions that consumers belong. 20 May 2021 – Impersonation fraud increased by 337% in 2020, indicating that the pandemic did not just change the lives of consumers in many ways, but also created new opportunities for fraudsters. This is especially concerning as a third

19 May 2021 – The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) is likely to hold rates steady when its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) wraps up its bi-monthly meeting this week. The rand has gained ground since the last MPC in March, and domestic inflation remains muted. But it will be focused on inflationary pressures down the

18 May 2021 – Since the beginning of the year, the JSE all-share index has increased dramatically by 14.6% and is one of the best performing stock markets in the world in 2021. In addition to this above-average stock market performance, the rand has outperformed most emerging market currencies and has appreciated by 13.9 %