Tag: exchange rate

Digitisation and increased mobility in the workplace are making the world more accessible by the day. With a paradigm shift towards working remotely, many South Africans are looking for ways to do this while travelling the globe. An accompanying spike in people wanting to emigrate or find work overseas, means there are a lot of South Africans abroad, or on their way soon.

Exports could hold the key to South Africa’s economic recovery and growth. South Africa is experiencing a record trade surplus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with our exports far outpacing imports. Recent data released by the South African Revenue Service showed that South Africa recorded a trade surplus of R51.4 billion in April 2021, surpassing market expectations of R31 billion.

Following the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) decision to cut its lending rate by 0.25%, we will be reducing our prime lending rate to 7% from 7.25% with effect from Friday 24 July. The recent FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index revealed an alarming but understandable slump in confidence, which has not been seen since 1985.

South African investors are still absorbing the twin blows of being downgraded by Moody’s into junk territory and, just four days later, the expected Fitch decision to take the South African sovereign debt rating down a further notch into junk territory.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassed one million last week. This number probably still understates the true spread of the coronavirus given the lack of testing in many places, and the fact that some infected persons don’t show symptoms.

A bout of recent heavy power outages had both South Africans and foreign investors rethinking their investments on home soil. While the economic instability has been felt predominately by the business sector, much hesitation has been experienced in the property sector too. 

For years, cost savings has topped the list of benefits offered by cloud computing. This is one of the factors that has resulted in the massive increase in the use of cloud services across the world, with analysts showing exponential growth among the biggest vendors every year.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered a macabre Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBSP) to Parliament on October 30. The MTBPS communicates to government and the people the economic context of the country and fiscal spending priorities over the coming three years. (It does not include detailed spending plans or tax proposals, which are left to the main budget in February.)

The invention of money allowed people to replace their original system of trade, which was barter. Instead of swapping one good or service for another, the creation of money allowed people to buy what they wanted on credit.