BEE can provide the muscle SA needs to flourish in recession

Over the last five years there has been unquestionable acceleration in the pace of transformation. Direct black ownership on the JSE has increased from less than 2 percent to more than 10 percent.

Almost all firms are developing and improving their own black economic empowerment (BEE) scorecard. The introduction by the department of trade and industry of the broad-based BEE framework has so far been a remarkable success.
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Banking index: Rate jitters weigh on shares

South African banking shares dropped for the third day on the JSE on concerns the Reserve Bank will increase borrowing costs tomorrow.

Standard Bank shares fell 2.6 percent to R79.25 late in the afternoon, the lowest since November 2006, before climbing back to close at R80.55. Absa fell 4.24 percent to R83.60, while FirstRand dropped 1.83 percent to R13.92. Nedbank retreated 3.74 percent to R91.74. More…

High rates dampen global confidence

By Joshua Gallu

Zurich – Confidence in the global economy fell this month as central banks signalled interest rates might be heading higher, according to a survey of Bloomberg users.

The Bloomberg professional global confidence index fell to 21 from last month’s 22.7, with respondents becoming more pessimistic in every region.

A level below 50 indicates negative sentiment. The measure had rebounded in the previous two months after hitting a low of 13.1 in March.

Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam who participated in the survey, said: “There’s been a shift in focus to the inflation beast. You can clearly see a co-ordinated verbal response from central banks highlighting the increase in long-term inflation expectations.” More…

Concerned home buyers flock to fixed-rate loans

By Ethel Hazelhurst

Johannesburg – Ahead of an expected interest rate hike on Thursday – and probably more to come later in the year – more home buyers are opting for fixed-rate mortgages. Unlike variable-rate mortgages that go up and down with the Reserve Bank’s official repo rate, fixed-rate loans remain in place for a period.

Dawid Spangenberg, the head of credit and pricing at First National Bank (FNB) home loans, said it no longer marketed the fixed-rate product.

“We don’t have to,” he said. “Every time Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni makes a statement we get lots of calls.” More…

Debt stress triggers health worries in US

By Jeannine Aversa

Washington – The stress from deepening debt is becoming a major pain in the neck – and the back and the head and the stomach – for millions of Americans.

When people are dealing with mountains of debt, they are more likely to report health problems, according to a health poll conducted by Associated Press (AP) and AOL. More…

Government action needed to tame inflation, economists say

By Ethel Hazelhurst

Johannesburg – The government should do more to make the economy competitive as a way to curb price increases, economists urged on Monday. The comments came ahead of today’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting of the Reserve Bank. The MPC will announce whether the bank’s official repo rate will be raised by half a percentage point or more.

The economists’ proposals are likely to be as controversial as the inflation targeting framework that has prompted Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni to raise the bank’s official repo rate by 4.5 percentage points over the past two years to 11.5 percent. More…

Mr Price to battle tough times with value offer

Johannesburg – Retail group Mr Price has reported a 15 percent increase in diluted headline earnings per share to 210.8 cents for the year ended March 2008 from 183.6 cents a year ago.

A final cash dividend of 79.5 cents per share was declared. Retail sales were up 19 percent to R7.421 billion, while operating profit was 17 percent higher at R716.2 million. More…