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BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Listen to the latest BusinessLIVE articles from the news desk of Business Day, Financial Mail and the Business Times.

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Daily English South Africa Business News · News
12,931 Episodes
980 – 1000

Fight for Hong Kong democracy a long game, says freed media tycoon Lai

Hong Kong — Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai said on Thursday he was overwhelmed by the support he got after becoming the most high-profile person to be arrested under a new national security law and urged patience in a “long-term fight” for democracy. Lai, a staunch supporter of the…
13 Aug 2020 3AM 2 min

Gold rises as dollar loses ground

Bengaluru — Gold climbed 1% on Thursday on a softer dollar, consolidating further above the key $1,900 level, with an ultra-low interest rate environment and worries over global economic fallout from mounting Covid-19 cases underpinning its safe-haven appeal. Spot gold was up 1% at $1,936.99/oz by 3.14am GMT, a day…
13 Aug 2020 2AM 2 min

Covid-19 an opportunity to rewire basics for next-generation digital growth

As SA navigates its way through lockdown measures and confirmed Covid-19 cases head towards 600,000, it's time to take stock and act. Many industries can regard this challenge as an opportunity to rewire the fundamentals of the way they do business. This is an opportunity for SA to completely embrace…
13 Aug 2020 2AM 5 min

Oil slips after stockpiles fall

Tokyo — Crude oil prices eased slightly on Thursday but held most of their gains from the previous session after US government data showed a fall in inventories, supporting the view that fuel demand is returning despite the coronavirus pandemic. Brent crude was down 8 US cents at $45.35 a…
13 Aug 2020 2AM 2 min

Stage 2 load-shedding returns on Thursday, with a high risk of stage 3 in evening

Citing generation unit breakdowns, Eskom has announced that stage 2 load-shedding is being implemented on Thursday, from 8am until 10pm. “This load-shedding has been caused by an increase in plant breakdowns during the night and early hours of the morning,” it said in a statement. “The delay of the return…
13 Aug 2020 1AM 1 min

US inflation data helps lift Wall Street and Asian markets

Singapore/Boston — Asia’s stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Thursday, as investors returned to tech stocks, gold and selling dollars after steady virus figures and a surprising jump in US inflation boosted sentiment. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2%, and gains in semiconductor makers…
13 Aug 2020 1AM 3 min

S&P 500 finishes just short of record closing high

New York — The S&P 500 jumped on Wednesday but finished just short of its February record closing high, in a broad rally led by tech-related stocks. The index in afternoon trading briefly surpassed its record high closing level of 3,386.15 from February 19, before the onset of the coronavirus…
12 Aug 2020 5PM 2 min

GIULIETTA TALEVI: How Trump’s WeChat ban is squeezing SA’s pensions

Donald Trump’s anti-China exertions may seem a world away but, unfortunately, they will likely have an effect on every single South African pensioner or investor, simply because of the importance of Naspers to our local market. If you haven’t been following the news, the US has set its sights on…
12 Aug 2020 5PM 3 min

Lockdown economics: which SA online stores have made a mint

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted consumers’ lives and battered their finances. Yet since lockdown level 5 began, smartphones and PCs have emerged as the new heart of the home, prompting a different kind of consumer behaviour. Research house Growth from Knowledge (GfK), which piloted a consumer survey in 30 countries,…
12 Aug 2020 4PM 5 min

DENNIS DAVIS: Fix the tax net holes

Last week, that very astute financial journalist Claire Bisseker wrote a devastating analysis in the FM concerning the state of the economy (, and the danger that we have passed the point where recovery is still possible. Take but three indicators she cited: between 2009 and this year, economic growth…
12 Aug 2020 4PM 4 min

ANDRE VISSER: The JSE’s balancing act

The Covid-19 pandemic is a humanitarian catastrophe that continues to pulse across the globe. Its impact has been far-reaching internationally, in our country and on many of our listed companies on the JSE. As a key part of market infrastructure and the frontline regulator, the JSE is required to make…
12 Aug 2020 4PM 4 min

EDITORIAL: The frailty of the National Treasury

The National Treasury and the Reserve Bank — staffed by world-class officials who produce top-quality analysis and operate with a high degree of transparency — have long been regarded as two of the strongest pillars propping up SA’s flagging institutional capacity.Over the past decade, the Bank has gone from strength…
12 Aug 2020 3PM 3 min

EDITORIAL: Ace’s ANC eulogy

South Africans who have for years resisted the admittedly bleak verdict on the governing party — that it’s effectively dead as an ethical organisation — will have been forced to reassess their position this week. What will have tipped the scales is the statement by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, when…
12 Aug 2020 2PM 1 min

EDITORIAL: Let’s open up, but safety first

If, as expected, President Cyril Ramaphosa does announce the opening of the rest of the economy this week, he might channel the British economist John Maynard Keynes and say when facts change, he changes his mind. The businesses that have been on the receiving end of some of the less…
12 Aug 2020 1PM 3 min

US consumer prices push higher for second consecutive month

Washingto — US consumer prices rose more than expected in July, with a measure of underlying inflation increasing by the most in more than 29 years amid broad gains in the costs of goods and services. The report from the labor department on Wednesday, however, probably does not mark the…
12 Aug 2020 1PM 5 min

EU considers new sanctions as Belarus intensifies crackdown

Minsk — European Union foreign ministers will hold a special meeting on Friday to discuss the unstable situation in Belarus, with some floating the possibility of renewed sanctions from the bloc. The EU “lifted sanctions against Belarus because the country had taken steps in the right direction,” German foreign minster…
12 Aug 2020 12PM 2 min

Russia dismisses nay-sayers over its Covid-19 vaccine

Moscow — Russia has brushed aside international concerns about the safety of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine and announced it will start mass inoculation this month before clinical testing is completed. “Western colleagues, who can sense the competitive advantage of the Russian drug, are expressing opinions that are completely unjustified…
12 Aug 2020 12PM 3 min

America’s First Mind may be a little dim

Local punters have been able to sample just what Donald Trump’s increasingly unhinged trade war with China will taste like.The general consensus is likely to be "unpleasant".Citing privacy concerns, Trump took aim at TikTok first, issuing what South Africans of a certain age would remember as a banning order which…
12 Aug 2020 12PM 1 min
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