Star 2024-03-06

And the economy of the country is only likely to see a growth rate of about 1% this year GROSS domestic product (GDP) increased only 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023 over the previous three months, only narrowly avoiding technical recession after six out of 10 industries kept the economy growing, data from Statistics SA showed yesterday. After the data was released the rand weakened to R19 to the dollar. The 0.1% growth was “lower than our and the market’s forecast of 0.3%. For the year as a whole, the economy expanded by 0.6%, down significantly from 1.9% in 2022,” Nedbank Group’s Economic Unit said in a note yesterday. “‘The good news is that South Africa has, after all, narrowly avoided a ‘technical recession’ (two successive quarters of negative…

AFRICA’S biggest grocer Shoprite’s continued market dominance and growth as well as stronger earnings performance after it raised sales and operating profits for the December 2023 interim period is bad news for rival operator Pick n Pay, which plans to spin off its top-performing chain, Boxer, under an IPO. Shoprite has performed strongly in the South African retail industry, which is battling depressed consumer spend. It grew sales for the half-year to December by 13.9% to R121.1 billion, sharply contrasting Pick n Pay’s negative growth in retail sales for the 47 weeks trading period to January 21, 2024, further to the R570-million post-tax loss for the half-year period ended August 2023. For Shoprite, there was strong performance in all of its supermarket brands, which include…

WHILE South Africa’s agricultural sector faced several challenges last year, it was not expected that the sector’s overall annual performance would drop sharply, the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) said after the release of data for gross domestic product (GDP) fourth quarter 2023. But the figures released yesterday by Statistics South Africa show that the gross value added for agriculture fell notably by 12.2% year-on-year, Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said. This comes as South Africa’s GDP increased by a mere 0.1% in the last quarter of last year. Headwinds in the livestock and poultry industry weighed on the sector more intensely than anticipated. This showed that unfortunately the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry decreased by 9.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023, contributing -0.2% of a percentage point to GDP…

A TASK team inclusive of private sector energy players has been set up to strategise over gas supply as well as its availability in efforts to avert the “gas cliff”, which poses a threat of job culling. This was the assurance that Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe made to investors in his keynote address at the 16th edition of Africa Energy Indaba (AEI) yesterday. He also used his keynote address to tell business leaders to stop being “cry babies” and assist with inputs to find solutions. His remarks follow public concern over the looming natural gas cliff. Sasol, South Africa’s monopoly supplier of large-scale natural gas, decided to suspend the supply of gas to industrial users by June 2026. “We have noted concerns regarding the current and future…

THE SOUTHERN African Power Pool (SAPP) yesterday said that it had appointed finance fund manager Climate Fund Managers (CFM) to manage a new $1.3 billion (R25bn) fund to facilitate cross-border energy transmission in southern Africa. This comes as several countries in Africa face load shedding, including South Africa. SAPP, in partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said in a joint statement that the Regional Transmission Infrastructure Financing Facility (RTIFF) would have a fund life of up to 20 to 25 years. The facility, which launches with $20 million in commitments from SAPP, targets a first close of $500m in 2025 to be raised from public and private sector investors locally and internationally and a final close of $1.3bn within 24 months. SAPP is a co-operation of…

THE COMPETITION Commission has insisted that its application to the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal the decision by the Competition Appeal Court (CAC) dismantling its case against 18 major banks was to seek clarity in the litigation of similar cases in future. This is as Commissioner Doris Tshepe came under a barrage of questions from DA MP Dean Macpherson on the competency of the Competition Commission in handling the litigation of the banks, which he said went as far as indicting people not working in organisations they were cited as being involved with. “There is a saying that when you are in a hole you should stop digging. Why is the Commission appealing the CAC judgment when every legal advice points to it not going ahead with the appeal?”…