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Cape Town - A roundup of Friday's top economic and finance reads on Fin24.
VAT, fuel price hikes: Ramaphosa gives ministers 2 weeks for plan to ease consumer pain
Government will in two weeks’ time announce a package of economic measures to cushion the public from the crippling effects of high fuel price hikes and the VAT increase, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday.
He said government had acknowledged that the people were reeling from the effects of fuel price increases which he said was among other factors imposed by the depreciation of the rand.
SA foreign-exchange reserves fall by $342m
The SA Reserve bank said on Friday that SA’s foreign-exchange reserve had decreased by $342m between the end of May and the end of June, from $43.36bn to $43.02bn.
The bank’s gross reserves, meanwhile, which include special drawing rights and gold reserves, decreased over the same time period from $51.14bn to $50.58bn.
The real world cup winner? Online gambling
The longer England captain Harry Kane and his team stay in the World Cup, the bigger the boost to the UK economy. But if there's one industry that stands to win whatever happens, it's betting.
Industry bodies have in the past argued that opposition to ads is emotional rather than evidence-based. Dr Mark Griffiths, of Nottingham Trent University's gaming research unit, found otherwise.
According to his research, normalisation of sports betting could hurt vulnerable sections of society: Some 70% of children have seen gambling ads on social media, according to the Gambling Commission; and problem gamblers mention advertising as a trigger.
NUM said to reject Eskom wage proposal as talks resume
One of the three unions meeting on Friday with power utility Eskom has already rejected its latest wage offer, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Wage talks earlier broke down when Eskom could only offer unions a wage freeze citing strained finances. It later upped its offer to 4.7%, then 5%, both which were rejected. The latest offer - which unions took to their members - was 6.2%.
BER cuts SA's growth outlook as Ramaphoria fades
Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research has downgraded SA’s growth outlook for the remainder of the year to 1.4% from 1.9%.
“The second quarter brought a stark reality check after the euphoria that characterised the early part of 2018,” said the BER in a summary of its findings on Friday.
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