NKC African Economics

Private sector activity continued to expand at a steady rate in April. The Stanbic IBTC Bank PMI was recorded at 52.9 points last month, unchanged from the March reading. The output and new orders com...

President Felix Tshisekedi has decreed a ‘state of siege’ in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the east of the country, in response to unrelenting violence targeting civilians in those provinces. The...

Tuesday, April 27, was a deadly day to be a protester in Chad. Nine people died, according to the Chadian Human Rights Convention, when soldiers opened fire on protests in Ndjamena and in the south. S...

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ (KNBS) most recent consumer price index (CPI) publication shows that headline inflation eased slightly from 5.9% y-o-y in March to 5.8% y-o-y in April. On a m-...

Vaccine rollout finally set to begin in earnest Vehicle sales gearing up towards pre-pandemic levels Rand trades on the back foot US trade deficit widens to new record

Egypt - We expect the economy to expand by just under 4% in 2021, with a softening in consumer demand following a remarkable, policy-induced performance over the past two years.

Malawi – Tobacco marketing season off to a better start. Morocco – Labour market softens again in Q1. South Africa – Vaccine rollout finally set to begin in earnest. South Africa – Vehicle sales geari...

Unemployment went up from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021. According to the most recent figures from the High Planning Commission (HCP), the overall unemployment rate was at 12.5% in Q1 2021 – up sharply from 10.2...

Malawi’s 2021 tobacco marketing season (which opened on April 20) got off to better start than in recent years, with $15.09m in realised sales at the end of April compared with realised sales of $8.98...

Data revisions by the Ministry of Finance show that the Zambian economy contracted by an estimated 3.0% in 2020, a tad more negative than the first-round estimate of 2.8%. The latest preliminary GDP r...

Following a series of false starts, the South African government finally seems ready to begin the country’s vaccine rollout. Since March, the country has been inoculating healthcare workers with the J...

New vehicle sales fell considerably in April when compared to the previous month; however, it is not far off when compared to the same month in 2019 (pre-pandemic year). The latest statistics from the...

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate dipped below 200% for the first time since H1 2019. Consumer price index (CPI) inflation moderated from 240.6% y-o-y to 194.1% y-o-y in April. On a month-on-month basi...

Manufacturing activity softens in April Massive trade surplus recorded in March Rand rises as vehicle sales recover to pre-pandemic levels US manufacturing growth streak not over yet