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Stock Market / Finance in Africa

  • Ghana budget signals fiscal tightening

    GHANA, 2015/01/09 While the headlines on Ghana’s 2015 budget focus on the short-term impacts of fiscal tightening, the proposed changes should have a positive bearing on the in general economy over time. The budget deficit has grown rapidly in recent years, next reaching a low of 4.3% in 2011. Combined with a shortfall in the current account of 12% of GDP, the twin deficits have raised concerns over the country’s outlook. However, the 2015 budget is seen by a lot of as a sign that longer-term solutions, in the form of structural reforms, are being sought as a means of tackling deficit and rising deficit. The budget, which was unveiled by Finance Minister Seth Terkper on November 19, aims to reduce Ghana’s fiscal deficit to 6.5% of GDP next year from a projected 9.6% in 2014. Increase, however, is estimate at a additional modest 3.9% for 2015, down from 6.9% this year, according to government figures.

  • Cameroon: Limbe City Council - FCFA 6 Billion Budget Approved for 2015

    CAMEROON, 2015/01/06 Senior Councillors of the Limbe City Council have adopted FCFA 6 billion for the 2015 financial year. The budget was adopted on 24 December 2014 during the 2nd ordinary session of the council chaired by the Government Delegate, Andrew Motanga Monjimba. Some FCFA 3.5 billion is allocated for recurrent spending, representing 59.10 % of the budget; while FCFA 2.4 billion is for investments, making up 40.90 %. Presenting the budget, the Government Delegate lamented that it remains the same as last year because of the difficulties in collecting revenue from their major tax payers since 2012.

  • Zimbabwe: Once You Dollarises There Is Just No Going Back, History Suggests

    ZIMBABWE, 2015/01/06 FEBRUARY 2015 will mark six years since Zimbabwe adopted the multi-currency monetary system, commonly referred to as dollarisation. The move was in response to the chaotic hyperinflationary period that had defined the Zimbabwean economic environment for almost a decade prior to February 2009. Most Zimbabweans still are haunted by the memories of that era at the same time as the country's again legal tender, the Zimbabwe dollar entirely lost its usefulness as a medium of exchange, store of price, unit of account and means for deferred payments- all considered features which give any monetary currency its price. Looking through history, it's interesting to note that there has not been any economy that has reverted back to its local currency once it has dollarised. Panama, widely considered as the closest the strategy of dollarisation has come to being successful, Ecuador and El Salvador all still use the US dollar a lot of years next dollarising. The logic behind dollarising is that the government would be aiming to reduce inflation whilst reaping the economic benefits of "co-opting" an extra country's currency.

  • Prices Sour Amidst Foreign Currency Scarcity, South Sudan

    SOUTH SUDAN, 2015/01/06 Prices of items have risen in South Sudan's Jonglei national, with traders attributing it to scarcity of foreign currencies. Mohamed Adam, a Sudanese trader in Marol market said prices of items shot up by at least 50% since the advent of the festive season. "To me, the market is very good. To me as a trader, market is 100 % good but to the customers, they may have a different feeling because the prices are very high," Adam told Sudan Tribune. "The increase of prices was a result of dollar prices in the black market in Juba. $100 is between 580 to 620 [South Sudanese] pounds", he added. Most people, traders say, spent their money on clothes and shoes.

  • Kwanza Old Notes Stop Circulating

    ANGOLA, 2015/01/06 The old notes of Kwanza, of the series 1999, will stop circulating this Wednesday 31 December of 2014), thus closing a cycle of 15 years. The international standards recommend that a series of note must circulate at maximum seven years. But the old notes of Kwanza lasted all this time due to conjectural problems. From the six billion of the issued notes of kwanzas, four billions of notes have by presently been collected by the issuing entity - Angolan National Reserve Bank (BNA).

  • Egypt Proves Best Destination for Stock Market Investors

    EGYPT, 2015/01/05 Egypt was 2014's best destination for stock market investors, producing a total return inclunding dividends and share price rises of additional than 30 % in a year in which the US led equity rallies in developed economies, according to Financial Times. The MSCI index for Egypt has almost doubled since mid-2013, the paper reported. Total returns based on MSCI indices were calculated in dollar terms, so the recent collapse of the rouble aggravated the woeful national of the Russian market, where investors suffered a "negative return" - or loss - of minus 42.3 %. The best performing large developed market was the US, where the total return reached 14.5 % on signs of a broadening and accelerating economic recovery, said Nick Nelson, equity strategist at UBS.

  • Wealthy Nigerians Don't Pay Tax

    NIGERIA, 2015/01/02 In spite of the introduction of austerity measures by the Federal Government, the Organised Labour says rich people have continued to evade tax. Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, the general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said in Lagos on Sunday that a great % of the affluent and the propertied class in the country do not pay tax. Most of the very rich people in the country are not paying tax; there must be a scheme to get them to pay adequate tax. "Most of the luxury goods are consumed by the rich, and goods in this category include private jets that are in our airports today," he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

  • Tanzania: DSE Named Africa's Best Performing Bourse

    TANZANIA, 2015/01/02 THE Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) has been declared as the best performing bourse in Africa in 2014, in terms of increase of its market capitalisation. Analysts reported that DSE's total market capitalisation registered a increase of 40 %, while domestic stocks grew by 66 % during the year, becoming the best performer on the continent. The DSE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Moremi Marwa, said the results were according to surveys by three globally reputed financial media houses -- Bloomberg, Thomson-Reuters and CBS.

  • MF Board tips South Sudan on economic growth, development

    SOUTH SUDAN, 2014/12/20 South Sudan must urgently address the issue of peace and political inclusion to set the basis for increase and development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board has advised on conclusion of the Fund's consultation with authorities in the country. The Directors noted that South Sudan faces formidable near-term challenges from the ongoing civil war, volatile relations with Sudan, large swings in oil production and prices, and weak institutions and governance. 'Against this background, Directors underscored the urgent need for measures to address fiscal imbalances, inclunding exchange rate unification, and stressed the importance of peace and political inclusion to set the basis for increase and development,' the IMF said in a statement it issued Thursday.

  • IMF reviews Burundi's economic performance, gives passmark

    BURUNDI, 2014/12/20 Burundi's economic performance - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed an economic review mission to Burundi during which it conducted discussions with Burundi's authorities for the sixth review of the government’s economic and financial programme supported by the IMF under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). An IMF statement sent to PANA in New York Thursday said the IMF mission, led by Mr. Jaroslaw Wieczorek, visited Bujumbura, Burundi's capital city, 4-17 Dec. It quoted Mr. Wieczorek as saying: 'Burundi's performance under the ECF-supported programme has been broadly satisfactory. All quantitative performance criteria for end-September 2014 were met and the structural schedule under the programme advanced, albeit some reforms have taken longer than envisaged to implement.
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