Investors like Ramaphosa’s win — but the hard work is yet to come
The initial Ramaphosa rally is already settling down as analysts note that turning SA’s economy around, with rivals within the ANC’s top ranks, won’t be easy
Investors got what they wanted in SA when Cyril Ramaphosa became the ANC’s new leader, putting himself in prime position to be the next president. Now comes the difficult part. He’ll be hard pressed to turn around a struggling economy, avoid more ratings downgrades and ease political tensions, according to AllianceBernstein and Credit Suisse Group. This means the rand will struggle to sustain the 14% rise that has made it the world’s best-performing major currency in the past five weeks, they said. The rand pared gains of as much as 4%, the most in two years, late on Monday after officials announced Ramaphosa had beaten his main rival, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, by 2,440 votes to 2,261. It rose 0.2% to R12.722 to the dollar by 4.34pm on Tuesday. Local-currency and dollar bonds extended gains. The yield on benchmark rand debt due in December 2026 dropped 25 basis points to 8.69% on Tuesday, extending its two-day fall to 47 basis points, the most in two years. Rates on the government’s $...
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