It has certainly been a busy week on the central bank front with the US Fed eral Reserve, the Bank of Japan ( BoJ ) and the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) all stepping out with their monetary policy statements and interest rate decisions. Here is a recap of this week’s central bank move… click here to download the full...
Read moreThe day is finally upon us – p rominent central bankers, finance ministers, econ omists and market participants have all made their way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the Fed’s annual symposium that kicked off yesterday. On occasions, former US Fed C hairman, Ben Bernanke, used this pl atform to indicate major changes in monetary policy. Back in 2012, Bernanke ...
Read moreFitch ratings agency quietly downgraded South Africa’s local currency Long – Term Issuer Default Rating to BBB – with a stable outlook, aligning it with the foreign currency rating , as one notch above junk status. This was due to the rating agency making changes to its sovereign methodology, consequently leading to 22 other countries also experiencing sovereign downgrades. The...
Read moreFitch ratings agency quietly downgraded South Africa’s local currency Long – Term Issuer Default Rating to BBB – with a stable outlook, aligning it with the foreign currency rating , as one notch above junk status. This was due to the rating agency making changes to its sovereign methodology, consequently leading to 22 other countries also experiencing sovereign downgrades. The...
Read moreInvestor optimism returned towards the end of the week, buoyed by the expectation that the major central banks will remain supportive of financial markets and stronger than expected US economic data. The minutes from the last US Fed meeting showed that officials were losing confidence in the need to tighten monetary policy any time soon and that the May slowdown...
Read moreLast week fears surrounding Brexit was a major driver of the markets, with an increasing number of economist forecasting that Britain will in fact exit the Eurozone in Thursday’s vote. Brexit, an abbreviation of “British exit”, refers to the possibility that Britain will withdraw from the European Union. The country will hold an in-out referendum on its EU membership this...
Read moreLast week closed with rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) announcement to keep South Africa’s foreign credit rating unchanged, reinforcing the current BBB- rating with a negative outlook. On Wednesday this week, peer agency Fitch, followed suit maintaining its BBB- rating with a stable outlook. Both agencies highlighted similar viewpoints: increased political tension poses a threat, slow growth remains worrisome...
Read moreToday ratings agency Standard and Poor (S&P) will decide whether or not to downgrade South Africa’s sovereign foreign credit rating. South Africa received its first downgrade from S&P in 2011 and again in June 2014, with the latter downgrade motivated by labour issues and failure to show economic growth at the time. In this review S&P has turned their focus...
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