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/ 6 February 2007

SA ‘missed the boat’ with mining exploration

Exploration activity in South Africa was the lifeblood of the mining industry but it was not growing as fast as it should be compared to other countries, Chamber of Mines of South Africa chief economist Roger Baxter said on Tuesday. Baxter said: "Exploration has to be booming to boost the industry, but in the last few years we have missed the boat."

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/ 29 January 2007

Rand, commodity link not a simple one

Mark Mobius, who oversees $30-billion in emerging-market equities at Templeton Asset Management, told I-Net Bridge on Monday that the relationship between the rand and commodities was not a simple one and that the key to reducing pressure on the balance of payments for a country was to add value to their commodities.

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/ 19 January 2007

Foreign selling weighs on bonds

South African bonds ended the week marginally weaker than last week, with the yield on the R153 rising by four basis points to 8,22% and the yield on the R157 rising by one basis point to 7,83%, with concerns around interest rate increases and selling by foreigners weighing on the market.

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/ 19 January 2007

Higher rates slow building plans

While overall levels of South African building activity are being maintained, the outlook for short-term growth has declined on the back of higher rates, according to analysts. While overall levels of South African building activity are being maintained, the outlook for short-term growth has declined on the back of higher rates, according to analysts.

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/ 12 January 2007

JSE anticipates ‘marginally higher earnings’

South Africa’s exchange, the JSE, reported on Friday that it anticipated its consolidated earnings and headline earnings per share for the year ended December 31 2006, to be "marginally higher than the previous reporting period". The JSE highlighted that the earnings for the period had been impacted by a number of events, notably robust world equities market performance.

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/ 29 December 2006

Chances of a February rate hike increase

On the back of worse-than-expected trade data, the latest M3 and PSCE figures are another tick in the February interest rate hike column, say analysts. "These data have acted as counter-weights to the better-than-expected inflation data released earlier in December," say independent economic analysts RLJP.

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/ 29 December 2006

Profit-taking puts a lid on JSE

Pockets of profit-taking put a lid on the JSE’s record run in the last trading day of 2006, but the outlook for the new-year remains in line with the recent bullish trend. The JSE closed at noon on Friday ahead of the new-year’s long weekend, the same time as the other local underlying financial markets.

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/ 20 December 2006

Politics to play key role in economy

The new year promises to be a volatile one politically in the lead-up to the election of the new African National Congress leader in December 2007, and this uncertainty is expected to have repercussions in the economy during the course of the year, particularly as to how foreigners react.

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/ 11 December 2006

Mboweni expects inflation peak by April

South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Friday evening that while CPIX inflation is expected to hit the upper end of the 3% to 6% target band by the first quarter of next year, it should peak around April and then begin to come down. "We should only begin to see a breaching of the upper end in April," he said.

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/ 7 December 2006

Mboweni’s not-so-merry Christmas

South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s words in mid-November that South Africans need to tighten their belts came home to roost on Thursday when he put a dampener on the Christmas spirit by raising the repo rate by 50 basis points to 9%. In mid-November he sent a strong message that this rise was coming. On Thursday he followed through with this.

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/ 7 December 2006

Why are consumers still buying?

South African real retail sales growth in September rose considerably to 13,6% year-on-year (y/y) from August’s 8,8%, with consumers possibly buying strongly in anticipation of tighter conditions which beckoned. Total retail trade sales amounted to R35,8-billion, while real growth for the year to date — recorded by Stats SA — came in at 9,9%.

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/ 1 December 2006

Govt expenditure up strongly in October

South Africa’s budget deficit for October 2006 was recorded at R3,3-billion compared with a small surplus of R384-million in October 2005, indicating the government is on track to meet its projected budget deficit of R7,8-billion. The cumulative deficit for the year is R7,2 billion compared with a cumulative deficit of R13-billion in October last year, National Treasury’s statistics show.

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/ 20 November 2006

Angola could be ‘China of the African continent’

Credit Guarantee said on Monday it had reviewed and upgraded its credit ratings of four of South Africa’s trading partners and had also re-rated Angola as open for export cover. "Having emerged from under the cloud of civil war, enormous opportunities now exist in the construction, agricultural, infrastructural, tourism and oil/mining-linked sectors [of Angola]," said Credit Guarantee.

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/ 10 November 2006

World Bank highlights African challenges

The World Bank has highlighted infrastructure investment, improving the investment climate, harnessing skills for innovation and building institutional capacity as critical areas demanding action in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank says success on these four fronts will help the region and Africa as a whole make up for missing two decades of global growth.

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/ 7 November 2006

Mboweni urges govt support of private sector

South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday that government support of the private sector is important and development of the local bond and corporate bond markets should be encouraged. He also said it is important to improve international ratings to add to foreign-investment confidence in South Africa.

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/ 6 November 2006

IMF sees ‘enormous potential’ in SA

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) first deputy managing director, John Lipsky, said on Monday that he saw tremendous potential in South Africa, but emphasised the need to maintain transparent economic policies, as well as the need to take action to benefit from foreign direct foreign investment.

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/ 3 November 2006

‘SA economy okay for now; concern is long term’

Global investment house Lehman Brothers said on Friday morning that while they remained concerned about the long-term outlook for South Africa and its markets, things were okay for now. Commenting on the views expressed on oil by central bank governor Tito Mboweni they added that they would argue that the recovery of the rand since the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting was at least as positive.

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/ 1 November 2006

Retail sales moderation good news for rates

After the more moderate 8,7% increase in retail sales in August from the revised 9,6% in July, any further cooling in retail sales growth in September will be good news on the interest rate front, say analysts. Nedbank researchers Dennis Dykes and Magan Mistry say that growth in retail sales is expected to ease off a high base as consumers begin to react to rising interest rates.

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/ 30 October 2006

No meaningful reduction in personal tax expected

While no meaningful reduction in personal income tax should be expected in the February 2007 main budget, the focus could be on the corporate tax regime instead, says Sanlam group economist, Jac Laubscher. "While government seems favourably disposed to lowering tax rates, it is keeping its options open as far as lowering taxes in the main budget in February 2007 is concerned," says Laubscher.

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/ 27 October 2006

High rates: It’s not all bad news

With interest rates on the rise in South Africa, and further hikes expected before the end of February 2007, analysts say that this will affect the financial health of firms and individuals at the margin, but will also place a check on irresponsible debt accumulation and inefficient operations.