NKC African Economics

The Egyptian economic recovery has not yet gained traction. The PMI is now again firmly in contractionary territory after a brief spell above the 50-point threshold towards the end of last year. We ex...

Africa – Weekly Covid-19 update, April 30. Botswana – BoB holds rates steady as inflation accelerates. Côte d’Ivoire – Recent cocoa market developments. DRC – Sama Lukonde government unveils its new p...

With the deadline for the ruling African National Congress (ANC)’s corruption-charged Secretary General Ace Magashule to step aside having come and gone, reports suggest that he has been given at leas...

As of Thursday, April 29, there was a total of 365,567 active cases of Covid-19 (confirmed cases minus recoveries and deaths) in Africa. This represents a weekly increase in active cases on the contin...

Private sector credit growth fell sharply in March, marking the first year-on-year contraction since April 2010. The annual growth rate for total private sector credit registered at -1.5% in the third...

In their second meeting of the year, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Botswana (BoB) decided to leave the bank rate unchanged at 3.75% against a backdrop of domestic and global inflation p...

Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa regulator, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), recently announced that it will reimburse cocoa exporters for expenses linked to the introduction of the $400/tonne premium, or so-...

The new prime minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, presented his three-year action plan this past week. Entitled “Building a strong, prosperous and united state between 2021 and 2023”, this 64-page doc...

While official reports are yet to be published, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) recently cut the key policy rate by 500 bps to 10.5%. This comes after the benchm...

Algeria – From our Quarterly Update (Apr 23). East Africa – Insecurity intensifies in Somalia amid election stalemate (Apr 26). Ethiopia – From our Quarterly Update (Apr 23). Lesotho – From our Quarte...

President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture (the Zondo Commission) for a second time on Thursday, April 29, and once again emerged la...

Ramaphosa testifies before the Zondo Commission Prices at the factory gate hold down the accelerator ZAR wobbles but remains on the front foot US GDP bloom will turn into summer boom

Botswana - The central bank’s inflation projections point towards a breach of the upper limit of the inflation target during 2021 Q2. The adjustment to administered price increases should keep headlin...

Egypt – Policy rate stable due to inflation risk, declining output gap. Ghana – Discussions initiated to produce Covid-19 vaccines locally. Mauritius – Foreign reserves nudge lower in March. Mozambiqu...