Catch MCPF Chairperson, Deputy Chair and Principal Executive Officer on ETV Sunrise on 15 March 2016 from 7:10 am. They will be talking about the National Pension Fund Forum Meeting to be held from 17 to 18 March 2016 at Birchwood in relation to the following three key matters MCPF transformation , the preparation toward 2016 exits and election as...
Read moreMario Draghi left the pea shooter at home and arrived with a bazooka at the European Central Bank’s monthly meeting on Thursday, delivering more monetary stimulus than what was expected. He cut the deposit rate further into negative territory (from -0.3% to -0.4%), he expanded the amount of monthly asset purchases to €80bn from €60bn (allowing for the inclusion of...
Read moreDomestic data was disappointing this past week. GDP growth for the final quarter of last year was lower than expected at 0.6% and full year growth of 1.3% was meagre at best. The agriculture and manufacturing sectors were the biggest detractors to growth, but the weakness was broad based. New vehicle sales slumped for another month in February as total...
Read moreThe National Budget Speech was one of the most eagerly anticipated in decades. With the recent widespread downward revisions to the economic growth outlook, the government had to focus its attention on trying to avoid the looming prospect of a sovereign rating downgrade to sub-investment grade. The economy is expected to grow by 0.9% in 2016, down from 1.3% last...
Read moreThis coming week Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan needs to step up to the plate in what is probably deemed the most crucial budget speeches in history. His duty will be to show that government is serious about reforming and cutting down on spending. The question is whether he has enough fiscal flexibility to prevent the credit rating agencies from cutting...
Read moreInvestor sentiment has been tested so far this year. Panic over the uncontrolled fall in the oil price and concerns over global growth sent stock indices tumbling with some entering bear market territory – a drop of 20% or more from their cyclical highs. Doom prophets re-emerged from the side-lines, calling for a global recession. The International Monetary Fund revised...
Read moreWith consumer confidence hovering near 14 year lows and business confidence at a 5 year low, Wednesday evening’s surprise decision by President Jacob Zuma to replace Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene by the relatively unknown Des van Rooyen finally pushed foreign investor confidence off a cliff as well. The reaction to the announcement has been disastrous and overall confidence was left...
Read moreThe South African economy narrowly avoided falling into a technical recession in the third quarter of this year, but growth was much weaker than expected and the outlook does not look set to improve any time soon. Weak growth conditions were echoed by the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index that dropped further from the previous quarter to its weakest level in...
Read moreSouth African retail sales data for September showed that momentum in the retail industry decelerated faster than expected and sales growth moderated from 4.0% the previous month to 2.7% from a year earlier. Although it will contribute positively to third quarter GDP, it is less than initially expected and is representative of a consumer market that is under strain. The...
Read moreThe US Fed’s case for lifting interest rates next month seems to have been cemented with last week’s strong employment numbers. Financial markets have assigned a 70% probability to lift-off next month, indicating that there is still some adjustment to be made if they indeed go ahead with such a move. But in the aftermath of last Friday’s payroll data,...
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