Money comes in, earnings go down as coronavirus wreaks havoc

THE IMF approved $4.3bn (R72bn) in emergency funding for SA, the largest emergency disbursement for any country yet to assist with fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The funds “support the authorities’ efforts in addressing the challenging health situation and severe economic impact of the Covid-19 shock”, it said.

INFLATION continued to hover close to multiyear lows, despite edging higher in June, Stats SA said. The increase took annual consumer inflation to 2.2%, up from its near 16-year low of 2.1% in May, and the second consecutive month that it has come in below the lower edge of the Reserve Bank’s target range of 3%-6%.

INSURANCE and financial services group Momentum Metropolitan Holdings is due to list on the A2X in August, bringing the number of securities traded there to 38, with a combined market capitalisation of R2.2-trillion.

THE continent’s largest bank by assets expects to post the sharpest decline in earnings in more than a decade as it grapples with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic that could see earnings halve for the first six months of 2020. Standard Bank announced in a trading update that headline earnings per share could fall between 30% and 50% from the R8.37 it reported for the first six months of 2019.

A measure of take-home pay showed there were double-digit declines in the number of monthly payments made in June. The Bankserv-Africa Take-home Pay Index showed a 20.7% decline in monthly payments from a year before.

SA’S consumers and companies battling the impact of Covid-19 and lockdowns will be hit by an increase in their electricity bills of at least 10% after a court judgment handed down in favour of Eskom in its dispute with the regulator of tariffs.