Less corrupt than other Brics, but with less wine

SOUTH Africa was less corrupt than its Brics bloc peers after improving its score in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions index for 2016. The index shows South Africa’s corruption score on 45, one point up from 2015, although its ranking fell to 64 from 61. ANGLOGOLD Ashanti would hold back on the job cuts announced last week and redeploy most of the workers in the company, the National Union of Mineworkers said. The company said it’s in talks to mitigate job losses. THE Consumer Goods Council of South Africa said it was cautiously optimistic about an improved trading outlook in the consumer goods sector during 2017, despite tight household budgets and muted economic growth prospects. BIDVEST Group was seeking deals outside its South African home market and could borrow as much as $1-billion (about R13.2-billion) for acquisitions after it spun off its food-services unit last year, said CEO Lindsay Ralphs. S&P Global Ratings has said rising political tensions in South Africa amid infighting in the ruling ANC could derail government efforts to improve policy implementation and that Pretoria had little room to boost spending. THE Reserve Bank issued a strong signal that it might start hiking interest rates again if higher global oil prices or a hit to the rand were to cause above-target inflation rates to persist into next year. It decided to keep rates on hold. LOGISTICS and vehicle distributorship group Imperial Holdings said it expected single-digit growth in revenue and operating profit for the six months to December 2016, leading to a double-digit drop in headline earnings per share. SOUTH Africa’s wine industry was in a slump, with only a third of grape producers farming at sustainable levels and return on income dropping below 1%, according to Anton Smuts, chairman of wine producer body VinPro.