Commodities and consumers hold the key
Confidence in the South African economy suffered fresh blows over the past two weeks, including news that we are in a technical recession. On a policy and political front, the new mining charter and public protector’s recommendation that the constitution’s Reserve Bank clause be changed, caused a brief sell-off in the rand. If implemented in current form, both the charter and the public protector’s recommendation would have negative consequences. However, this is unlikely since both the Reserve Bank and the Chamber of Mines have indicated that they are heading to court.