Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions expect the African National Congress (ANC) to secure another mandate in South Africa’s May 8th general elections.
• While the ANC’s share of the vote is likely to fall from the 62.2% it obtained in the 2014 election, the party and its leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa, will still obtain a solid working majority

Key View:

• We at Fitch Solutions see little upside for the South African construction sector following the upcoming general election, with the potential launching of an Infrastructure Fund the only major positive note.
• Nevertheless, this will not be sufficient to offset structural problems in the domestic construction sector. We expect the

Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions expect the African National Congress (ANC) to secure its sixth successive legislative election victory in the vote scheduled for May 8th.
• We expect its share of the vote to fall from the 62.2% it obtained in the 2014 legislative election, but remain above its all-time low vote share of 53.9% secured at the 2016

Key View

• We see the South African rand as set for further volatility in the months ahead.
• Slow domestic growth and policy uncertainty in the run-up to the May 8th legislative elections will weigh on the rand, as will the risks associated with fiscal slippage. However, a more neutral US monetary policy stance and short-term risk-on sentiment—

Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions believe that South African economic growth will strengthen somewhat in 2019 from the very weak level seen in 2018.
• The agricultural sector will return to positive—albeit modest—growth after contracting by 4.8% in 2018, meaning that it will act as less of drag on overall expansion. We also expect a rise in

Key View

• Eskom is struggling to meet household and business power demand in South Africa; coal and diesel shortages, lack of maintenance and cyclone Idai are reportedly to blame. 
• Technology-dependent companies, especially telecoms network operators and datacentres are facing increased capital and operational expenditure as a direct result of

Key View

• The Developed Europe region is now entrenched as Aspen Pharmacare's most important region geographically, but sales fell slightly in H119 compared to H118. Future Group reshaping will focus on emerging markets.
• Aspen will soon focus solely on pharmaceuticals; its Commercial Pharmaceutical Business will remain its most important.
• Nonet

Key View: We maintain a weak outlook for the South African consumer over the short term (2019, 2020). While economic growth is recovering from years of stagnation, offering some upside to consumers in terms of wage growth, there are a number of risk factors that will ensure that consumption falls short of its potential. Unemployment remains