1. Moody's is expected to announce its decision on SA's credit rating today. A Reuters poll of economist expects that we will avoid being downgraded to junk. Still, the rand is looking jittery ahead of the announcement, falling to R11.89/$ by close of Thursday, after it reached R11.77 earlier.

 2.       Naspers announced yesterday that it is selling R125 billion in Tencent shares – it still holds more than 31% of the company. Its share price ended the day down more than 6%. 


The proceeds from the sale will be used to reinforce Naspers’ balance sheet and to invest in its global classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses.

3.     South Africans splurged on appliances and furniture in January, with sales up more than 9% compared to a year earlier. But on the whole, retail sales – up only 3.1% - looked relatively subdued. 

4.       Here comes a trade war. President Trump yesterday imposed tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese goods and limited China’s freedom to invest in the US technology industry. Hours later the Chinese government threatened to slap tariffs on $3 billion in US goods.

Wall Street plummeted in response, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing 724 points down. This morning, stock markets across Asia were bleeding.

5.  Amid political wrangling, there is renewed uncertainty about whether South Africa will see a new minimum wage of R20 an hour from 1 May.

The fabulous food diary of Tito Mboweni

The former governor of the Reserve Bank has tweeted another of his infamous post-curry pictures, which has been eagerly shared across social media.


Tito Mboweni regularly documents his culinary pursuits:











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