The Latest: President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Competition Amendment Act 18, 2018. The Act aims to reduce concentration in the economy through greater oversight over corporate behaviour and lowering the barriers for entry for small, medium and previously disadvantaged enterprises.

Key View

• South Africa's Competition Amendment Act increases the power of the competition committee. As a result, recommendations from the private healthcare inquiry conducted in July 2018 may be legally enforced.
• If this is the case we expect to see increased regulation and additional guidelines around how private practitioners operate.
• As a

Key View:

• Although the proposed unbundling of South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, into three separate entities will potentially enable it to operate more efficiently and transparently, we do not expect those entities to escape the company's existing financial stress in the near term, owing to the significant size of its debt burden

Key View:

• Vodacom’s home market reported declining subscriber numbers and service revenues for the quarter ended December 2018. This was offset by a positive showing from the international segment, bolstering the overall group revenues; however, Vodacom cannot rely on this effect indefinitely.
• In the near term, Vodacom’s pricing transformation

Key View:

• We expect South Korea’s fiscal surplus to remain under pressure due to increased government spending and weaker tax revenue collection amid slowing growth, which will be exacerbated by a wage hike.
• We maintain our forecast for the fiscal surplus to narrow to 0.6%, from 2018's estimated figure of 1.2%.                 

We at Fitch

Key Views

• We forecast muted growth of just 1.3% in new passenger car sales in South Africa in 2019, totalling around 377,330 units by year-end.
• Consumer disposable incomes will remain under pressure on the back of rising inflation and an increase in borrowing costs in 2019, which will dampen growth in new car sales.
• Rising borrowing costs will

Key Views

• We at Fitch Solutions expect the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to raise its benchmark policy rate by a cumulative 50 basis points (bps) in 2019, having hiked the rate from 6.50% to 6.75% in November 2018. Policymakers are keen to prioritise efforts to anchor medium-term inflation expectations, with the SARB governor, Lesteja

The Latest: The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) hiked the benchmark monetary policy rate from 6.50% to 6.75% at the November 20-22 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The decision to raise the benchmark interest rate – the first hike by the SARB since 2016 – was contentious within the MPC, with three members initially voting to keep the rate

The latest: South African-owned firm Infinivy SA and Israeli partner company Cast-TV have launched an internet-based free-to-air streaming service TV2GO, in South Africa. As 74% shareholder, Cast-TV will provide the infrastructure and technical expertise for the service.

Implications: TV2GO’s 'no-subscription fee' model runs the risk of a volatile