Investments / Economy

The big picture on SA’s debt

Fixed income managers entered 2021 with plenty of attractive yield on the table; but there are growing concerns about the risk attaching to these yields. Peter Kent, Co-Head of SA & Africa Fixed Income at Ninety One, used the asset manager’s 2021 Insights presentation to reflect on various challenges to the domestic economy including government’s obsession with governance rather than growth, and the looming fiscal crisis. He observed that the US Federal Reserve’s ongoing response to the global pandemic would have a significant impact on both emerging and developed market asset prices. This is evidenced by the ‘breather’ enjoyed by emerging markets on the back of dollar weakness, in turn caused by record quantitative easing (QE) through 2020.

Economies at a glance and summary of indices - January 2021

Alexander Forbes identifies key economic trends and investment themes for 2021 and beyond

Following the volatile year for the global and domestic economies in 2020, we expect 2021 to see an improvement, though uneven across economies.

SA’s future not as bleak as you think, but we need growth over redistribution