Business News Today
South African Rand hits 22-Month High
The South African rand briefly strengthened to around 17.1 per USD, hitting its highest since January 2023, following the presentation of the country’s mid-year budget review. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s statement revealed an improvement in fiscal outlook, despite projected slower growth this year and next. Stronger revenue collections than projected in May will allow the government to post a wider primary budget surplus and a smaller overall deficit this fiscal year, a key step toward stabilizing the country’s debt.
Furthermore, the National Treasury has formally endorsed the SARB’s 3% inflation target, responding to the central bank’s repeated calls for the change in target range. Godongwana noted that although the impact on government finances will be mixed in the short term, this change is expected to reduce the costs of living and borrowing while boosting economic growth and revenues in the years ahead. Rising prices of precious metals, particularly gold, also boosted the currency. The Rand is currently trading at around R17.06 to the US dollar.
Vine Video Archive Revived in New App
A new social media project to bring back Vine’s six-second looping videos is launching with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s backing. The new app called diVine will give access to more than 100,000 archived Vine videos, restored from an older backup that was created before Vine’s shutdown. The App is available from today. The app will allow users to create profiles and upload their own new Vine videos. In a departure from the traditional social media platforms, where AI content is often haphazardly labeled or not labled, diVine will flag suspected generative AI content and prevent it from being posted.
Mauritian GDP Forecast Grows With Interest Rates Unchanged
The Central Bank of Mauritius unanimously decided to leave its key repo rate steady at 4.5% for the third consecutive time during its November 2025 meeting, citing the need to anchor medium-term inflation expectations against a backdrop of elevated economic uncertainty. The country’s annual inflation eased to 4.1% in October from 4.4% in September, remaining within the Bank’s medium-term target range of 2-5%. Headline inflation for 2025 was revised down to 3.7% from 4% previously, on the back of softer commodity prices, easing global inflation, food subsidies, and lower fuel costs.
For 2026, inflation is expected to converge toward the midpoint of the Bank’s target range, settling at 3.6%, though upside risks from global factors remain. Meanwhile, the Bank raised its 2025 real GDP growth forecast to 3.1%, up 0.1 percentage point from the August MPC projection, and expects growth of 3% in 2026, while cautioning that risks remain tilted to the downside.
Crude Oil hits Three-Week Low
Crude oil futures fell toward $62 per barrel on Thursday, extending a nearly 4% slump from the previous session to reach a three-week low, after OPEC signalled a well-supplied market outlook. The group said global oil production is expected to align with demand by 2026, reversing its earlier forecast for a deficit, and noted that supply already exceeded demand in the third quarter. At the same time, the US Energy Information Administration raised its projection for domestic output next year, while the International Energy Agency recently softened its stance on peak oil demand, now expecting global consumption to keep rising until 2050.
Investors are now awaiting the IEA’s monthly report later today for potentially further bearish cues. Adding to the downside, industry data showed US crude inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ending November 12th, which would mark a second consecutive weekly build if confirmed by official figures.
Breaking News Shorts:
- The annual inflation rate in Ethiopia fell to 10.7% in October 2025, the softest since March 2019, from 13.2% in the prior month. This marked the fifth consecutive month of slowing inflation, helped by both food (10.2% vs 12.1% in September) and non-food products (14.2% vs 14.8%).
- Skims, the shape-wear brand co-founded by celebrity Kim Kardashian, says it is valuation now sits at a new milestone of $5bn, after the company raised $225m in new funding. The company plans to use the investor funds, including money from Goldman Sachs, to expand its retail stores globally.
- Some of Senegal’s international bonds hit record lows yesterday as lack of progress on a new loan programme with the International Monetary Fund fuelled concerns over an impending debt crunch.Euro- and dollar-denominated debt dropped between 2.5 and 3.0 cents, Tradeweb data showed, with the 2031 bond suffering the biggest losses to bid at 68.518 cents.
- Vodacom Group has announced a key agreement with Starlink, the world’s largest satellite broadband provider, to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband internet to millions of businesses across Africa and to expand rural network coverage.
- Elon Musk has announced that 𝕏 is dropping the old Twitter algorithm and switching to a brand new, pure@grok -powered AI recommendation system built by the@xai team. GrokAI will analyse around 100 million daily posts, including text, images, and videos, to recommend content based on intrinsic quality rather than follower counts or popularity, with the update rolling out by December 2025.
Markets by Numbers
Currency markets indicate the US dollar softer today, with the Euro trading against the US dollar at 1.15879 while the Pound is trading at 1.31245 to the US dollar. The Yen is currently trading at 154.86 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently at R17.06 to the US dollar.
Commodities:
- Gold futures have gained over 0.5% today, and are currently trading around $4215.77 per ounce.
- Copper prices are 0.7% up today, with prices currently around $5.1075
- Silver futures prices have spiked by more than 1.6% today, and currently trading around $54.133
- Platinum futures are up by 0.8% today, and currently trading at $1630.00, While Palladium prices are trending 0.87% higher this morning and are currently trading around $1500.00 per ounce.
- Brent crude oil prices have slipped further today, and currently at $62.66 with WTI trading lower at $58.42
- Cocoa futures continue to tumble, and currently trading around $5625.00 per ton.
- Coffee futures have dived by almost 5% today, and are currently trading at around $4.0165 per pound
Crypto Currencies:
- Bitcoin prices are currently trading at around $10378 per coin
- Ether prices are trending higher today, and are currently trading around $3450.21
- $Trumpcoin are trending lower today, and currently trading around $7.693
(All prices quoted at approximately 07H20 Central African Time)
Africa News Briefs:
- The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf has warned that the continent’s debt crisis is undermining development. Speaking in Ethiopia at a G20-Africa high-level dialogue on debt sustainability, Youssouf, said government debt has grown to about $1.8 trillion.This represents about two-thirds of the continent’s GDP and is largely due to the high cost of borrowing and limited access to concessional finance.Youssouf said that in 2024 alone, debt-service payments exceeded $70 billion, consuming an increasing share of tax income, eroding fiscal abilities to invest in infrastructure and human development.
- Guinea is seeking to launch its first sovereign wealth fund by Q2 of 2026 with an initial $1 billion funding, according to the planning minister, Ismael Nabe. The West African nation moves to leverage a flood of revenues from its giant Simandou iron ore mine. Guinea is currently the biggest bauxite exporter globally and a growing supplier of gold and lithium.
- South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed the US not attending this month’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, saying yesterday that “It’s their loss”. Ramaphosa added that “the United States needs to think again whether boycott politics actually works, because in my experience it doesn’t work.” The US is currently South Africa’s second largest trading partner but relations between the countries have been strained for some time.
