South Africa
The South African market saw positive gains during the first two months of the quarter but followed most of its global peers into a decline in June. The JSE’s positive run ended and South Africa’s FTSE JSE All Share Index ended the quarter flat. One positive was that the return on the FTSE JSE All Share Index for the period from 1 January to 30 June 2021 was up 13.2%.
- South Africa’s first quarter GDP rose more than expected, at an annualised 4.6% quarter-on-quarter. Growth remains constrained by electricity load-shedding and unemployment levels at record highs.
- Local economic news was dominated by political events throughout the second quarter of 2021.
- The Government announced the loosening of power generating restrictions in South Africa and the sale of a majority stake at cash-strapped SAA with a black-owned consortium pumping in more than R3 billion to get the majority slice of the stake.
- A Constitutional Court ruling sentenced former president Jacob Zuma to 15 months jail time for contempt of court sent a signal that no South African is above the law. This was followed by civil unrest causing severe damage to property and lives in the days thereafter.
The South African economy continues to be volatile. It is expected that there will be an improvement towards the third quarter as the national vaccine roll out gathers momentum.