NKC African Economics

Kenya - The next policy meeting will be held later this month, and we expect rates to stay unchanged at 7% throughout 2021. We forecast CPI inflation to remain stable at an average rate of 5.4% in 202...

East Africa – Somali President Farmajo’s term extension cancelled. Kenya – Constitutional amendment bill before Parliament. Mauritius – Mauritian rupee loses ground against the US dollar. Rwanda – Tra...

The latest figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) report that consumer price index (CPI) inflation decreased to 2.1% y-o-y in April from 2.7% y-o-y recorded in March. The CPI has been reb...

The latest monthly statistics of external trade in goods published by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) indicate that the trade deficit expanded by 12.7% m-o-m in March 2021, to re...

Parliamentary debates over the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, which started on April 28, are likely to conclude this week with both houses still expected to pass the bill. However, what was o...

On Saturday, May 1, Somalia’s legislators in the lower House of Parliament voted unanimously to nullify a law passed last month to extend the term of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (popularly kno...

The Absa purchasing managers’ index (PMI) declined to 56.2 pts in April, from 57.4 pts in March. All five subcomponents were in positive territory in April, which is the first since early-2012. The mo...

The quarter-on-quarter economic contraction in Q4 2020 indicates that the economy remains vulnerable to Covid-19-related shocks. We expect disruptions originating from the pandemic to remain in play i...

Consumer price inflation showed some signs of moderation after a seven-month upward march as price growth slowed by 0.1 ppt to 22.7% y-o-y in April. Food price inflation, the primary driver behind mul...

The accelerated divergence between advanced economies and African frontier markets will become more overt this year as lower-income countries fall behind on vaccination campaigns and shift into premat...

In line with a weakening in the euro, the Mauritian rupee depreciated by 1.0% m-o-m to average Rs40.0/$ in March. Given that the rupee has historically tracked the dollar/euro exchange rate, it is als...

The latest trade statistics show that the value of merchandise exports rose by a staggering 45.2% y-o-y in March, to reach R168.3bn. For Q1 as a whole, goods exports came in at R408.6bn – 25.5% higher...

High noon for Magashule postponed Corporate South Africa faces credit hesitancy US consumer sentiment is in full bloom Asian exports step into higher gear

Algeria - Government debt is forecast to touch the 70.0% of GDP threshold this year, and, by 2024, we expect the public debt burden to equate to 82.6% of GDP.