Hits & Misses

Inflation slows but economy caught in a catch-22 over Eskom

INFLATION

eased more than expected to 4% in July from June’s 4.5%, well within the Reserve Bank’s target band. While there was some upward pressure from electricity prices due to the Nersaapproved average price increase of 15.63% for municipalities, this was offset by a decline in fuel prices.

ADVTECH,

the education and recruitment group, said earnings had improved in the first half of 2019. A trading statement said that thanks partly to oneoff transactions, headline earnings per share for the period would be 25%35% higher when it announces its results. Normalised EPS, which exclude one-off items, would grow 2%-6%.

ITALTILE

will pay an additional dividend to shareholders thanks to its growing cash pile. The group said that despite the tough retail environment, total turnover rose 15% to R10bn in the year to end-June and trading profits grew 18% to R1.8bn.

AN

acceleration in economic growth could trigger power cuts. The energy availability of Eskom’s generation fleet is supposed to be as high as 80%, but is currently as low as 69%, and even a 0.1% rise in GDP could result in outages, said Nelisiwe Magubane, an Eskom board member, at an Afriforesight event.

THE

introduction of a carbon tax in SA is one of the reasons Harmony Gold reported a full-year loss, despite a sharp increase in revenue and higher gold production. Harmony, the largest producer of gold in SA, reported an impairment of R3.9bn against its local mines because of the carbon tax that offset forecast improvements in the price of gold.

DECLINING

occupancy in the hotel industry in SA looks set to continue as subdued business and consumer confidence persist. SA’s average occupancies have steadily fallen in the past few years and in the year ended June dropped from 61% to 58%.