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Politics to the Fore

06 September 2016

Politics came to the fore in August, both in a positive and negative way. On the positive side, the 2016 Local Government Election was largely free and peaceful and voters showed that they were prepared to hold politicians accountable, especially in the metro areas. All parties involved also accepted the outcome of the polls. While local governments do not usually influence macroeconomic policy, it is notable that those parties with a radical economic agenda failed to make big inroads, showing that the risk of a major shift to populist policies seems limited.

Politics, Policies and Market Resiliency

30 August 2016

This year has been one full of uncertainty and surprises on many fronts. While the United States has been embroiled in pre-presidential election drama and speculation about what might trigger the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and multiple central banks worldwide turned to a negative interest-rate policy in an attempt to stimulate growth.

Medals, spreads and hawks: a tale of two countries

29 August 2016

South Africa marked a historic haul of 10 medals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, equalling its best performance ever. Host country Brazil secured 19 medals, but its much larger population means that the country won 0.01 medals per million people, compared to 0.5 medals per million people for South Africa. For Brazilians, the Games were also mired in controversy over fears that venues would not be ready in time and would end up as white elephants, while the overall cost of the games was indefensible at a time when Brazil is suffering its worst recession in decades (never mind that the cost came in way over the initial budget).

Inflation slows towards top end of target band

24 August 2016

Sanisha Packirisamy, Economist, and Herman van Papendorp, Head of Asset Allocation at Momentum discuss the country’s inflation in relation to targets.

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If you had to choose one approach to protect your hard-earned investment cash from today’s market madness, which would it be?

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