BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Brazil GDP plummeted 9.7% in second quarter due to Covid-19

Brasília — Brazil’s economy registered the biggest drop on record in the second quarter as social isolation measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus paralysed activity from investments to family consumption. GDP plunged 9.7% from the previous three-month period, more than the median estimate for a 9.2% tumble…

1 Sep 2020 11AM 2 min

Deepwater Horizon disaster defining moment for CEO of Norway’s wealth fund

Oslo — On his last day as CEO of Norway’s $1.2-trillion sovereign wealth fund, Yngve Slyngstad revealed to his audience the moment he grasped just how crucial responsible ownership will be to the future of global finance. He zeroed in on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico…

1 Sep 2020 11AM 2 min

ENOCH GODONGWANA: Membership of ANC NEC does not preclude development bank role

Old Mutual-linked financial services company Futuregrowth Asset Management has raised the issue ( of my roles as both an ANC national executive committee (NEC) member who chairs the party’s economic transformation committee and as the nonexecutive chair of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). This is easily addressed. No…

1 Sep 2020 10AM 6 min

Treasury will meet deadline to appoint accounting authority at Prasa, it says

The Treasury says it will meet the deadline set by the High Court in the Western Cape to appoint an accounting authority for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) before the end of the week. This follows judge Nathan Erasmus’s ruling that transport minister Fikile Mbalula’s failure to appoint…

1 Sep 2020 9AM 2 min

African regulators should move boldly to grow global digital economy

Africa’s role in the development of the global digital economy requires bold decisions if the continent is to influence global affairs, the global economy and the global imagination. This was the vision of economic change outlined in The Economist’s May special report on “The African Century”. The continent should drive…

1 Sep 2020 9AM 4 min

JAPAN TIMES: Pandemic proves too much for Abenomics

As outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself says, political leaders are judged not by how long they have been in power but by what they have accomplished. When Abe surpassed his great-uncle Eisaku Sato (in office from 1964 to 1972) as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister last week, his approval…

1 Sep 2020 9AM 2 min

By the numbers: Municipal debt

Listen to the latest BusinessLIVE articles from the news desk of Business Day, Financial Mail and the Business Times. This audio is produced directly from the text article.

1 Sep 2020 9AM 1 min

By the numbers: SA is an expensive place to die

Listen to the latest BusinessLIVE articles from the news desk of Business Day, Financial Mail and the Business Times. This audio is produced directly from the text article.

1 Sep 2020 9AM 1 min

Mandarin forced on Mongolian children as China changes language policy

Beijing — Chinese government efforts to replace the language of instruction in schools in Inner Mongolia appear to have backfired, prompting parents and students to boycott classes and take to the streets in protest, videos from human rights activists show. One video posted to YouTube by the New York-based Southern…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 3 min

Going back to school in the UK is vital — for kids and the economy

Sara Vickery-Bragg has a company in London preparing mail-order gift boxes and her husband runs his own technology firm. They have also been nannies, teachers and entertainers for two small children since March. As for so many parents, that combination of roles is finally about to end in the UK…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 6 min

Emmerson ‘Crocodile’ Mnangagwa is worse for Zimbabwe than Mugabe

A year ago this week, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa strained credulity when he declared in a Bloomberg TV interview, “We have rejoined the family of nations.” The international community was already losing patience with his inability to deliver economic reforms and Zimbabweans were complaining of a steady erosion of the…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 5 min

Norway relaunching Atlantic cod farms after earlier failures

Oslo — Norway is relaunching cod farms in Europe’s ice-cold northern waters after mass escapes and failure to thrive condemned its earlier attempt to become the first country to try large-scale breeding of a species declining in the wild. The handful of companies raising Atlantic cod in pens in Norwegian…

1 Sep 2020 7AM 4 min

Oil prices rise as dollar continues to slide

London — Oil prices rose on Tuesday, reversing overnight losses against the backdrop of an equities bull run and a sliding US dollar. Brent crude futures climbed 40 US cents to $45.68 a barrel by 9.30am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also rose 40c, hitting $43.01 a…

1 Sep 2020 6AM 1 min

Hi-tech Covid-19 tracing tools threaten personal digital rights

Santa Cruz — A range of technologies designed to combat the spread of Covid-19 is being deployed across Europe, from tracking apps to infrared cameras, posing a threat to individual digital rights and privacy, a report warned on Tuesday. Using such tools, despite the urgency surrounding the pandemic, calls for…

1 Sep 2020 6AM 2 min

New life for Europe’s suburban banks due to Covid-19

London/Frankfurt — The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to online banking in Europe, but it has also given some suburban branches an unexpected new purpose — as alternative office spaces for staff reluctant to commute to big headquarters in city centres. Banks have been slowly cutting the number of…

1 Sep 2020 5AM 4 min

Global markets have spring in their step at start of new month

London — Stocks started September on a positive note, with global indices close to record highs and Europe edging higher, pushed up by Chinese factory data that showed a rebound in demand. Factory activity in China expanded at the fastest rate in nearly a decade in August, a private PMI…

1 Sep 2020 5AM 3 min

IAN FUHR: How ‘cultureneering’ can help companies survive Covid-19

SA companies are battling the Covid-19 storm, using cost-cutting tactics that include retrenchments, short weeks and reduced salaries. Here’s the biggest problem with these survival tactics: the traditional focus on the bottom line and cost-cutting wasn’t working before this pandemic, and Covid-19 has only shone a harsher spotlight on the…

1 Sep 2020 4AM 4 min

Gold rises to almost two-week high

Bengaluru — Gold prices rose on Tuesday to their highest level in almost two weeks, as the dollar slipped to multiyear lows on bets that US interest rates would stay lower for a longer period after the Federal Reserve’s new policy framework. Spot gold was up 0.7% at $1,983.77/oz by…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min

Oil recovers as traders’ risk appetite returns

Melbourne/Singapore — Oil prices recovered on Tuesday, erasing overnight losses, as investors moved into risk assets and away from the safe-haven dollar, which tumbled to multiyear lows. Brent crude futures climbed 49c, or 1.1%, to $45.77 a barrel at 4.06am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 37c,…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min

BRUCE WHITFIELD: R187bn on bailouts — this is what that actually looks like ...

So how did you feel about Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s revelation that government had spent just over R187bn on bailouts to state-owned enterprises over the past twenty years? Did you shrug your shoulders and think: “Billion-schmillion what’s the big deal? We’ve become complacent about big numbers. There are so many…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min