Africa Markets Podcast

Zambia: The statistics agency in Zambia reported first growth for 2022 at 2.4 q/q. Key contributors included Public Admin, ICT, Electricity, Accommodation and Real estate. 

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Commodities: Over the past month, there has a been a significant decline in prices across most commodifies – fueled by fears of lackluster economic performance. The market is pricing in a recession as higher inflationary pressures erode production and chip away at discretionary spending. 

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Côte d'Ivoire: Moody’s has affirmed Côte d'Ivoire’s sovereign rating at Ba3 and has changed its outlook from stable to positive. This is largely informed by the country’s prospects for growth between now and 2025 with GDP expected to print north of 7% according to the rating agency. In addition to strong growth and stable monetary policy, the rating agency expects fiscal conditions to continue to improve over the next few years.

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Namibia: Fitch ratings agency has opted to downgrade Namibia’s sovereign rating from “BB” to “BB- “on account of worsening twin deficits relative to its peers. Fitch expects the budget deficit (% of GDP) to come in at 7.6% in 2022, wider than the average budget deficit of “BB” rated economies of 5.0%.

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Egypt: The MPC opted to keep rates on hold as they wait to observe the impact of the year-to-date 300bp increase in interest rates. Lending rate remains at 12.5% while the deposit rate is 11.5%.

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Namibia: Room occupancy rates from the Namibia Hospitality Association of Namibia continue their upward trend, coming in at 39.4% during May. This is higher than the 36.5% recorded in April and the 25.7% recorded over the same period last year. 

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Namibia: The latest FNB Namibia residential property report indicated that the House Price Index grew by 4.7% at the end of the first quarter of this year, down from 7.1% at the end of 2021, but unchanged compared to 1Q21. 

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Botswana: The Bank of Botswana’s (BoB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MoPR) by 50bps at a meeting held on 16 June 2022, effectively increasing the MoPR from 1.65% to 2.15%. Furthermore, repo and reverse repo operations will be conducted at the MoPR (2.15%). 

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Namibia: The latest FNB Rental Index data shows that prices edged up by 0.6% at the end of March as rental activity picks up across the country. According to the FNB Residential Rental report, upward price action is seen across the properties with more than three bedrooms. 

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Mozambique: Food and transport inflation seem to be the main protagonists in the latest inflation print which came in at 9.3% y/y in May, highest level since September 2017. The Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on global prices combined with general disruptions in supply has led to higher import demand into the country. 

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