Asian shares cautiously gain on virus hopes, dollar slips
A group of organisations representing informal traders has called on government to provide relief and financial assistance to workers during the lockdown period.
Nearly 140 campaign groups and charities urged the IMF and World Bank, G20 governments and private creditors on Tuesday to help the world’s poorest countries through the coronavirus crisis by cancelling debt payments.
US stocks rocketed higher on Monday, with each of the major indexes rallying at least 7%, after a fall in the daily death toll in New York, the country’s biggest coronavirus hot spot, fueled optimism a leveling off of the pandemic was on the horizon.
The group of oil producers known as OPEC+, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, are likely to agree to cut production at a meeting scheduled for Thursday as long as the United States joins in cutting output, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters.
The Reserve Bank has cut its growth forecasts for South Africa, predicting the economy could shrink by as much as 4% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the national 21-day lockdown and the recent downgrades by credit rating agencies.
Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza says the R1.2 billion COVID-19 disaster fund will be targeted at smallholder and communal farmers with an annual turnover of R20 000 to R1 million.
The rand has continued to remain weak against a basket of currencies at opening trade on Monday morning.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are “very, very close” to a deal on oil production cuts, Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, told CNBC on Monday.
The City of Johannesburg will from on Monday start issuing temporary permits allowing informal food traders to operate as providers of essential services during the lockdown period.
A majority of online South Africans are confident that the national government is effectively addressing the threat posed by the spread of the coronavirus, even as lockdowns and closures force millions to isolate themselves.
About 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa as the continent’s economies are projected to shrink in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according an African Union (AU) study.
Medical Aid Schemes estimate that they will spend over R2 billion just on COVID-19 testing and treatment.
About 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa as the continent's economies are projected to shrink this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according an African Union (AU) study.
The South African arm of British American Tobacco urged the government on Saturday to reconsider its ban on cigarette sales during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, saying it would have unintended consequences.
Market analysts expect the rand and local stocks to come under more pressure when trading on the local bourse resumes on Monday.
World Bank Group President David Malpass on Friday said the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic was expected to cause a “major global recession” that would likely hit the poorest and most vulnerable countries the hardest.
Small Business Development Minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, says her department has received over 2000 applications from small businesses for financial relief since the launch of the system.
The South African government says that it has noted Finch’s decision to downgrade SA’s long-term foreign and local currency debt ratings further into non-investment by one notch from BB+ to BB.
A chain store in Centurion, south of Pretoria, has responded to the rapidly-changing lifestyles necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic by disrupting traditional forms of local supermarket shopping as we know it.
President of the South African Informal Traders Alliance Rosheda Muller says municipalities are not issuing permits for informal food traders.
South Africa's rand weakened for a third session in a row early on Friday as the growing likelihood of a global recession due to the spreading coronavirus compounded an already gloomy local economic outlook.
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has established an Economic Commission to assist the business sector after the coronavirus lockdown ends.
The World Bank on Thursday said it had approved an initial $1.9 billion in emergency funds for coronavirus response operations in 25 developing countries, with more than half the aid earmarked to help fight the fast-spreading disease in India.
Before the coronavirus hit, Muna Nur Farah had started to hate her husband. He’d slink into their home in the Somali capital Mogadishu at 3:00am with empty pockets, his money squandered on the narcotic leaf khat.
Taxi associations in Johannesburg have welcomed governments decision to sanitise their ranks
From expensive watches to chocolates and cement, Swiss industry is being battered by the coronavirus epidemic, data showed on Wednesday, with the country’s PMI survey sinking to its lowest level in more than a decade.
China’s ports and shipping firms are bracing for a second wave of supply chain disruptions that may be deeper and more prolonged than during the country’s coronavirus lockdown as the global spread of the virus chokes off international demand.
The coronavirus pandemic is putting increasing strains on emerging market economies, but the International Monetary Fund has sufficient resources to meet their needs for now, IMF officials said on Wednesday.
The South African Revenue Service ( Sars) says it collected R1. 356 trillion in the financial year ending on the 31 March 2020.
African finance ministers want International Monetary Fund, World Bank and EU support for bilateral, multilateral and commercial debt relief amid the coronavirus crisis, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said.
