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Retailers warned not to lend recklessly
The festive season is in full swing, offices are empty, beaches and bars are full. (The stuff about retailers is at the bottom, having sloped off to the beach inbetween).
Everybody (just about!)is taking a well deserved chill and a break. Journalists have filed their copy well in advance and also taken their holidays.
There were a few things happening in the world of finance, but what seems to be much more important is just taking a little break, so from what was available this is it.
iAfrica surveyed a bunch of economists about inflation.
One economist was of the opinion that inflation was above expectations but appeared that we 'are slowly getting inflation into the bottle'. Let's hope that the next time the inflation genie is let out of the bottle the three wishes that it wants granted are not more cars, more HD-TVs and more houses!
Another economist felt that the deflationary pressures were leading to further rate cuts next year, along the lines of how much rather than when or if.
A third expected the petrol price cut to bring down Decembers inflation rate more significantly.
A final economists was quoted as such: 'Domestic economic growth is expected to slow for longer than previously expected and this will likely result in economic policies being focused more on averting a recession, similar to prevailing international trends'.
In other news Business Day reported that negotiations on trade with the European Union were going forward.
There has been a disagreement between South Africa and our regional trading partners who have negotiated a trade deal with the EU. SA already has one with the EU that is bilateral rather than a collective regional one.
The trade negotiations are aimed at normalising the discrepancies between the two trade regimes which had been leading to tensions between SA and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). This new deal will allow us to retrofit a number of tariff lines. Quoting Chief trade negotiator for South Africa, Xavier Carim, says the offer was 'quite an important development".
Business Day also carried an article warning retailers to watch who they grant credit to. The National Credit Act basically makes the lender liable if it can be found that they were lending recklessly. Retailers might find themselves stuck with large liabilities for debt that they gave out as credit to pump the festive season spending.
Business Report announced a report into creating a national credit register that would ' enable the sharing of small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) credit information and minimise the risks assumed by lenders in South Africa'.
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