The chaos in the Zimbabwe economy took another turn today. Zimbabwe will redenominate the dollar by removing 10 zeros from August 1, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said today (30 July). The Zimbabwe dollar will be redenominated by a factor of one to 10, which means they are removing ten zeros from the monetary value. This means that Ten billion (Zimbabwean) dollars today will be reduced to one dollar with effect from August 1. The new currency will co-circulate together with the family of bearer cheques … which shall cease to be legal tender on the 31st of December 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

South Africa’s targeted inflation - the Consumer Price Index excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds (CPIX) has risen to a new five-year high of 11.6% year on year in June from 10.9% year on year in May, Statistics South Africa said today (30 July). The surge is attributed to rising international oil prices and soring food costs. The higher than expected figure could put pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates yet again next month. This is the fifteenth month running that CPIX has been above the 6% upper target limit set by the Central Bank. Read the rest of this entry »

Siyabonga Mapoko (Siya) is the author of Conversations with JSE AltX entrepreneurs. He has been featured in Financial Mail; Radio 702; e News Channel; Blue Chip Magazine and many other print media. Siya graduated from UCT with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, in 2002. In 2003 he spent some time doing research for his MSc thesis at GlaxoSmithKline in England. His research focused on contrast agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In 2005, Siya joined Investec Asset Management as an Equity Trader. While at Investec Siya was also a financial markets reporter on SAfm for the Vuyo Mbuli Show. Towards the end of 2006 Siya left Investec to start iCaptive Corporate Network, a digital signage company. To get a signed copy of Conversations with JSE AltX entrepreneurs email Siya at siya@icaptive.co.za . The book retails for R179 only.

Today, Siyabonga speaks to TheRandToday.com and answers a couple of our questions: Read the rest of this entry »

It is no secret that we face an electricity crisis in South Africa. Eskom have just not been able to cope with the increase in demand of electricity due to the growing economy. The government and Eskom are trying to find a solution to the electricity crisis. There are suggestions that new power plants have to be built over the next couple of years and more coal will need to be secured inorder to power these plants. Funding for this expansion has not been easy as consumers seem to be the main contributors to the funding with electricity tariffs set to rise.

There have been calls by many to find alternative means of power to help increase the supply of electricity in South Africa. Many wonder why there has not been a major drive to start using more and more solar power. After all, we are in South Africa where we get a lot of sun shine through out the year. There are many countries in Europe using solar energy and they do not get as much sun shine as we do in South Africa. The cost of setting up the solar power infrastructure is relatively high but it would be a good long term investment. Read the rest of this entry »

As the economy continues to fall in Zimbabwe, the Reserve Bank in the country looks sets to take off some more zeros from the local currency. Just last week, a new $100 billion note was released to help ease the current cash shortages in Zimbabwe. Currently, one person is allowed to withdraw a maximum of $100 billion a day. Now looking at it in real terms, the value of that $100 billion note is approximately worth R10.

A couple of years ago, three zero’s were slashed off the Zimbabwe currency and it looks set that a few more are going to be taken off shortly with some asking for as many as nine zeros to be taken off. Zimbabweans had gotten used to dealing in trillions and billions. Some did not even know that a term called quadrillion existed, but that is what you can expect to hear now if you want to buy a house in Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »

As sales of new cars continue to go down in South Africa, it is worth noting that it is not only an issue in South Africa but through out the rest of the world. Jennifer Yousfi from Money Morning, takes a look at hoe car makers across the world are trying to fight against this slump in cars sales by looking at the emerging markets.

A trio of European automakers, including Volkswagen AG, yesterday (Wednesday) released stronger than expected second-quarter results based on strong car sales in emerging markets.

In addition to Germany’s Volkswagen, France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen SA and Italy’s Fiat SPA reported yesterday, and reaffirmed their outlook for the remainder of 2008, which gave all three shares a boost in European trading. Read the rest of this entry »

The rand firmed 1% to its strongest level against the dollar in two months today (22 July), despite the greenback’s own rally after a Federal Reserve official said US rates may have to rise. At 16:29 the rand traded at R7.5080/$, having briefly gotten to R7.5005 a short while earlier. This is the firmest the local currency has been since May 19. The rand had closed on Monday at R7.5800. Some analysts predict the rand to remain around these levels for the rest of the week.