Star 2023-07-26

ECONOMIC growth in South Africa is expected to weaken in the near future as the intensified power cuts, elevated interest rates and logistical bottlenecks continue to constrain business activity, putting additional pressure on government finances. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) yesterday said that the composite leading business cycle indicator fell to 1.7% in May, slipping further from an upwardly revised 1.1% decline in April. This marked the fourth consecutive month of declines in the business indicators, as six out of the 10 available component time series decreased. The SARB said the largest negative contributors were the downturns in approved residential building plans and South Africa’s export commodity price index denominated in US dollars. By contrast, the positive contributors were the widened interest rate spread, and the accelerated six-months smoothed…

Co-hosts are: Dr Pali Lehohla, the former Statistician-General of South Africa and BR lead reporter Siphelele Dludla. We will touch on columns in BR’s Energy Today – published on Wednesdays in The Star, The Mercury and Cape Times and online – and get more indepth insights. Our first conversation will focus on infrastructure in a conversation between Crown Prince Adil Nchabeleng, the President of Transform RSA and an Independent Energy Expert, and MthunzI Luthuli, the CEO of Economic Interventions Forum of South Africa. The link to the conversation will be published by BR on Friday. Independent Media’s new Energy Today pages are not only available weekly in Business Report, but also in our weekend titles as well as a monthly Energy Today magazine. We are thrilled to bring you the…

SHARES in Shoprite trended higher yesterday after the retailer said it expected a 16% increase in merchandise sales as alcohol continues to boost its growth and gain market share. The shares closed3.99% higher at R252.54 on the JSE yesterday. Investors were quick to welcome the positive operational update for the 52 weeks to July 2, 2023, in which the group said merchandise sales grew to R215 billion, while LiquorShop sales increased by 30.8%. This after its rival Pick n Pay last week reported a decline in sales for the 20 weeks ended July 16, 2022 – a grim update that the market found a bitter pill to swallow. Shoprite said first-half sales growth of 35.6% was elevated due to Covid-19 lockdown closures in the prior year…

Country’s growth is expected to decline to 0.3% in 2023 in latest prediction THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has given South Africa’s some reprieve, forecasting that the country’s economic growth would not decline as previously thought in 2023 as adverse risks to global growth have receded since April. In its World Economic Outlook (WEO) yesterday, the IMF said though the ongoing energy crisis would drag economic growth lower this year, avoiding a technical recession in the first quarter of 2023 had given the economy some hope. South Africa’s power utility Eskom has resumed implementing heightened levels of power cuts during peak hours as the current electricity generation struggles to meet rising demand after lower stages of load shedding in June. “In South Africa, growth is expected to decline to 0.3%…

THE COMPETITION Tribunal has conditionally approved the controversial merger of Takatso Aviation and SAA, but was mum on its reasons for doing so. It said yesterday that it would issue its reasons in “due course”. Takatso intends to acquire 51% of State-owned company SAA from the government as represented by the National Department of Public Enterprises. “The tribunal has approved the transaction subject to conditions involving a moratorium on retrenchments and divestiture of the shareholding by the minority shareholders in the Takatso consortium,” it said. There have been numerous concerns about job losses and fiscal transparency. Takatso also had to reassure the tribunal that it would be able to manage SAA optimally without its subsidiaries. The consortium also has to fund SAA’s operational costs to the tune of R3 billion…

MPACT’S headline earnings per share for continuing operations are expected to increase resiliently by between 30.3% and 37.3% for the six months to June 30, 2023, after it focused on higher margin business. Mpact is a leading paper and plastics packaging manufacturer in southern Africa and recycler of recovered paper and plastic. Basic earnings per share (EPS) are expected to be between 185 cents and 195c, an increase of between 33.2% and 40.4% over a year before, the group said in a trading statement yesterday. The earnings increase was mainly due to an improvement in the plastics business’s profitability as a result of the recent investments in bins and crates manufacture, and consolidation of the preforms and closures operations. Selling prices in the paper business were higher and there…