SA interest rates should fall sharply in 2003, with inflation subsiding more rapidly than is widely expected, fund managers Citadel said in a quarterly presentation.
Thousands of South African municipal workers began a protest rally to press their wage demands on Thursday, as negotiators tried to end a two-week strike.
The US economy’s outlook is favourable and interest rates need not be raised until the recovery gathers steam, according to a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report notable for its criticism of the Bush administration’s economic performance.
South Africa’s rand opened steady versus the US dollar on Tuesday after it was sold off in overnight trade in New York, traders said. The rand was traded at R10,27/dollar at 0655 GMT after trading at R10,342/dollar in late Johannesburg trade on Monday.
Information technology stocks dragged the JSE lower in opening trade on Friday, but the gold sector lent support on a firmer bullion price.
The consulting division of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that it would undergo a name change after its separation from the mother company.
South Africa’s rand and bonds were a bit firmer in early Wednesday trade ahead of the start of the central bank’s scheduled two-day monetary policy meeting.
A daily newspaper aimed at an emerging market, The Daily Sun, will be launched in July by Nasnews, the newspaper division of Media 24.
An expected rate hike by South Africa’s central bank on Thursday would be a trade off between short-term growth for longer-term macroeconomic stability.
Inflation data for May is expected to show a continuation of the upward trend in prices with both the headline and core inflation measures rising sharply to 8.7% from 8.0% the month before.