Star 2023-06-05

NEDBANK announced on Friday that it was seeking a new CEO as Mike Brown, its CEO, is set to retire after 14 years at the helm. The new leader will be in charge of a bank valued at R103 billion. This as Alexforbes’ outgoing chairperson and former SA Reserve Bank (SARB) deputy governor Daniel Mminele was in February announced as the next Nedbank chairperson. Mminele took the role after the annual general meeting on June 2, succeeding Nedbank’s current chairperson, Mpho Makwana. Brown has 30 years’ experience working at the banking group. He took up the CEO position in 2010 and held the role of chief financial officer previously. In its voluntary trading statement, the group said it would commence a process to choose a successor to Brown, supported…

NESBANK said on Friday it had revised its South African gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for 2023 downwards as trading conditions had declined and its credit-loss ratio was higher than management's expectations. In a trading statement, the lender said it had altered its SA GDP growth forecast for 2023 downwards from 0.7% in February 2023 to 0.2%. “The cost implications of load shedding and a weaker rand have resulted in upward adjustments to its inflation forecast, which is now expected to average 6% in 2023, up from 5.5% in February 2023,” it said. According to the bank, in response to higher-than-expected inflation, the weaker rand and the continuous tightening of foreign monetary policy, the SA Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee increased the repo rate by 50 basis…

Electricity Minister says risk of a national blackout was extremely low given the various control measures in place THE MINISTER in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has warned that the government will be ramping up Demand Side Management (DSM) programmes this winter as part of measures to prevent load shedding from exceeding stage 6. DSM is a strategy used by electricity utilities to control demand by encouraging consumers to modify their level and pattern of electricity usage, and typically includes monetary incentives to encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient equipment, or lower prices if they agree to reduce usage during peak times of demand. Ramokgopa on Friday presented an update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, saying that they were working tirelessly to avert a…

THE HAWTHORNE effect is one of the sins that are commonly committed by researchers, and this includes those who are quite seasoned. The Hawthorne effect can be quite subtle, especially when the subject being investigated is complex. The Hawthorne effect is described as “the modification of behaviour by study participants in response to their knowledge that they are being observed or singled out for special treatment. “In the simplest terms, the Hawthorne effect is increasing output in response to being watched.” It is a yes minister syndrome in public affairs. Give Mr Minister the answer you presume he wishes to hear. In survey methodology, sampling theory becomes representative provided the universe or the sample space from which the sample is taken is arranged so that the units can be…

DESPITE the risk of yet another US Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week, share prices across the globe started to recover sharply from last Wednesday supported by the almost doubling of new jobs created in America. Economists and investors now believe that the US economy is unlikely to move into a recession, that interest rates may not be paused and that the global economic will recover by the end of the year. On the JSE, the all share index was down by 2% during the first two days last week, it improved strongly by 2.1% on Thursday and Friday. The index is now 1.25% higher since the Monetary Policy Committee of the SA Reserve Bank increased the repo rate by 0.50 basis points recently. The Top40 index gained 1.44%…

IN AN ECONOMY that continues to shed jobs, shrinking tax base and increasing social grant bill, you can imagine the shock on May 25, 2023, when South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago announced an increased in the repo rate by 50 basis point to 8.25% and prime lending rate to 11.75% with effect from May 26. This being the 10th consecutive increase in rates adding a total of 475 basis points to the repo rate since policy tightening began in November 2021, also raising the borrowing costs to the highest level since May 2009. The reality is that because of the difficult economic conditions, an average South African lives on credit and saving is a stretch. Each time the SA Reserve Bank increases the repo rate, it causes…