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the country’s government debt to GDP ratio is unsustainable at 73.45%. In other words, our debt stock is worth nearly three-quarters of the total value of goods and services produced in the country in any given year. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Explainer: What forces will shape South Africa’s economy in 2023?

Economy hitting geopolitical tensions, pressure on consumers and load-shedding will likely stick around

South Africa’s prime lending rate stands at 11.75%.  Photo: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Inflation rises, bucking expectations

The increase will probably add to the South African Reserve Bank’s hawkishness, with analysts expecting another large repo rate hike on Thursday

The Reserve Bank has maintained the repo — at which it lends to commercial banks — steady at 8.25% for five consecutive meetings, since hiking it by 50 basis points in May 2023.

South African inflation hits the highest mark since 2009 joining global economy struggles against rising food and fuel prices

Consumer inflation surged again, after piercing the South African Reserve Bank’s ceiling for the first time in five years

An aerial view of trucks parked on the road side waiting to get access into Tincan port in Apapa, Lagos, on January 11, 2021. – At the beginning of 2020, just before the coronavirus crisis, 99% of exports and more than 89% of imports passed through the seas, almost exclusively via Lagos. 
After oil, the port of Lagos, which stretches from Apapa to Tin Can island, is the second largest source of income for the African giant.  (Photo by Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP) (Photo by BENSON IBEABUCHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Nigeria’s economy short circuits despite oil gains

Africa’s largest oil producer has not been able to cash in fully on the price rally because of lacklustre production and its reliance on imported fuel

Consumer inflation is expected to remain close to the central bank’s 6% ceiling, amid war-induced oil price rally (Dean Hutton/ Bloomberg/ Getty Images)

Reserve Bank set to hike interest rates

Consumer inflation is expected to remain close to the central bank’s 6% ceiling, amid war-induced oil price rally

Community empowerment: A performance group connected to the Extinction Rebellion group joins hundreds of other people protesting against Shell’s plan to conduct underwater seismic surveys along South Africa’s Wild coast coast, at Muizenberg Beach, Cape Town. (Rodger Bosch/AFP)

The business case for environment, social and governance criteria

ESG performance presents an opportunity for involving communities in the decision-making process and reducing costs that might emerge down the line from litigation and fines

Petroleum giant Shell announces its intention to withdraw from Russia’s oil and gas market. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Shell announces it will exit Russia

The oil giant’s chief executive flagged the consequences of the West’s moves to disentangle itself from Moscow’s energy system

Palestinian employees at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) wearing protective masks and gloves, prepare food aid rations to be henceforth delivered to refugee family homes rather than distributed at a UN a center, in Gaza City, on March 31, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

New strategies are required to control food-price inflation

Food-price inflation has a direct effect on people’s lives — and it hits the poor the hardest

Economists widely expect the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee to once again hold the interest rate at 8.25% when it concludes its meeting on Thursday.

Reserve Bank lifts rates again as high inflation takes its toll

The monetary policy committee has voted to lift the repo rate by another 25 basis points as advanced economies mull policy tightening

Fleetwood Grobler Sasol Group CEO at the company’s annual financial results presentation at the head office in Sandton. (Photo: Freddy Mavunda/Business Day)

Sasol on ‘rollercoaster’ ride to a green future

Fleetwood Grobler, the petrochemical giant’s chief executive, says the company is transitioning from coal to gas and eventually to hydrogen.

Higher oil prices can increase the costs of living and doing business, and South Africa’s oil imports will also likely rise in the second half of 2021, but there are a few reasons to remain positive too.  (Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Will the oil price surge hurt South Africa’s recovery?

Higher oil prices can increase the costs of living and doing business, and South Africa’s oil imports will also likely rise in the second half of 2021, but there are a few…

Petro states: What happens when 30% of your national budget disappears in a decade?

As the demand for oil shrinks and prices collapse, Africa’s petro states — the likes of Angola, Nigeria, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea — will be left with massive holes in their…