Thousands join job force but bulk exports plunge

SOUTH Africa added 235 000 employees to the economy in the last quarter of 2016, despite one of its key employers, the mining sector, continuing to bleed jobs. Stats SA said unemployment had dropped to 26.5% in the fourth quarter.

WOOLWORTHS shared its R1.76-billion profit from the sale of Australian department store David Jones’s Sydney head office with shareholders by maintaining its interim dividend at R1.33 despite a decline in headline earnings.

INFLATION, as measured by the consumer price index, moderated to 6.6% in January from December’s 6.8%. The change in CPI is the key measure used by the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee to set interest rates.

STRONGER commodity prices pushed South32 into a profit for its interim period and strong free cash flow to give it a net cash position of $859-million, leaving it well positioned for acquisitions and growth.

SAA has been hit with a R1.16-billion fine, adding to its struggle to remain a going concern. The High Court in Johannesburg ruled that it must pay Comair R554-million, plus years of interest, for engaging in anticompetitive behaviour between 1999 and 2005.

SIXTEEN local and international banks face fines of up to 10% of their annual turnover after the Competition Commission decided to prosecute them for colluding to fix prices and allocate markets while trading foreign currency from 2007.

CITY Lodge Hotels posted low single-digit growth in first-half profit as occupancies in its home market declined. Normalised headline earnings inched up 2% to R197.12-million as the occupancy rate dipped to 66% from 69% a year before.

SOUTH Africa’s bulk export volumes fell 6.5% year on year in January to 13.5 million tons. There was also a fall of 2.8% for all of 2016 to 163.3 million tons, data from the Transnet National Ports Authority showed.