Staff Reporter
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/ 2 February 1998

Early rate cut unlikely

MONDAY, 2.30PM: FIGURES released on Friday make it unlikely that interest rates will be cut soon, and economists are speculating that a cut will come only in mid-March, perhaps to be followed by another later in the year. The Reserve Bank announced that December money supply grew 17,16% year-on-year, lower than the expected 17,81% rise, […]

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/ 30 January 1998

The price of free e-mail

David Shapshak Subscribe to a free e-mail service and you will discover that you are merely another notch in someone’s pitch to win advertising on the Internet. Free e-mail on the Internet is driven by suppliers who view it as a way of enticing Web advertising. Their wares are displayed on a free e-mail home […]

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/ 30 January 1998

Cosmetic consciousness

Kathryn Flett : Gender While I struggle by with my shampoo, cleanser, facial scrub and one pot of posh moisturiser, it has come to my attention that my thirtysomething male lodger possesses an expensive and extensive range of unguents that rehydrate, soothe and psychoanalyse. But does the man who uses a bit of butch moisturiser […]

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/ 30 January 1998

India win not good enough for the final

FRIDAY, 11.10AM: INDIA’s Under-19 squad beat Pakistan by five wickets in their MTN U19 World Cup semifinal match at Kingsmead on Thursday, but it was not enough to take them into Sunday’s final at the Wanderers. Pakistan hit 188 all out in 47 overs, to which India replied with 191/5 in 40,1. South Africa are […]

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/ 30 January 1998

A right little money-spinner

The South African Mint is certainly coining it, reports Belinda Beresford Lost down the back of sofas, stored in glass jars, hiding at the bottom of pockets or simply discarded, South Africans are very careless with their coins and about one billion new coins are needed each year to replace those removed from circulation. This […]

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/ 30 January 1998

Making plastic work for you

South Africans have cottoned on fast to the saving — not spending — prospects of credit cards, reports Belinda Beresford More and more South Africans are using their credit cards to save as well as to spend. Banks report rising numbers of customers using their plastic as de facto savings accounts to take advantage of […]

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/ 30 January 1998

IMF ‘bail-out’ only made things worse

The powerful number crunchers keep getting it wrong, writes Alex Brummer Every decade or so the men in grey suits from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington touch all of our lives. Today it is happening in Asia. In its early years the fund’s main customers were the Western economies themselves: even the mighty […]

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/ 30 January 1998

A victim on the run from cover

Why do we go on forking out for insurance, asks Rich Chanelle from London I give away about R8 000 a year. I don’t give it to good causes or charities. I don’t even give it to people that I like! I give R8 000 away, every year, to tycoons and multicorporations. Why not give […]

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/ 30 January 1998

Industrials keep JSE up

FRIDAY, 5.45PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended slightly firmer on Friday following a good performance by industrials. By the close the JSE the financial index had slid seven points to 11 209, and the gold index was likewise seven points weaker at 881, as the gold price failed to hold recent gains. The industrial index […]

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/ 30 January 1998

A stone which defies gravity

Dan Atkinson explains why the diamond continues to sparkle around the world Ask any businessperson to forecast the outlook for a product which last year saw sales dive 20% in the Far East, which meant extensive smuggling and selling on illicit markets around the world and which even saw that product enjoy its own health […]