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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 11:49
The country's 200 000-odd Tupperware agents are angry about the counterfeit products being sold as the real McCoy.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Johannesburg - South Africa would not be able to escape an
escalated European crisis unscathed, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on
Thursday, adding its direct economic exposure to the countries affected was
reasonably low.
The rand touched a near two-month low of R7.002/$ on Monday
and government bonds have also fallen this week as investors dumped riskier
assets on worries about debt problems besetting some eurozone countries.
“South Africa’s direct economic exposure to those countries
affected by current market turmoil is reasonably low,” Gordhan said in an
opinion piece published in Business Day.
“The greater risk for South Africa is the potential for
contagion that results in a prolonged and expanding crisis in Europe and
undermines global growth significantly.”
As a small, open economy, South Africa would be hit by
troubles in Europe, Gordhan said, but the government had increased its foreign
exchange reserves as protection against global shocks to the economy.
“In an extreme crisis, the government is in a position to
use these funds, although the liquidity implications of doing so would also
have to be considered,” he wrote.
South Africa fell into recession in 2009 as a sharp fall in
global demand hit the key mining and manufacturing sectors.
The recovery remains sluggish, and for that reason the
majority of economists polled by Reuters expect the Reserve Bank to hold off
increasing interest rates later on Thursday, despite rising inflation.