Quantec news

Interest rate prospects

The Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged at both their August and October 2008 MPC meetings, despite an acceleration in inflation. The prime interest rate is still at 15,5%, five percentage points higher than at the beginning of 2006. However, despite this increase in nominal interest rates, real interest rates (nominal interest rates less inflation) have dropped sharply in South Africa, just as they have in the USA. In August 2008, real interest rates (as measured by the three-month bankers' acceptance rate) were at their lowest levels since 1988. In the USA, real interest rates have been negative since the beginning of 2008. more...

Access RSA and Global Economic Indicators using our EasyXL website

Last week we made our new EasyXL website available to all users subscribed to our South African Economic Indicators data collections. Some of our users have been using EasyXL for a long time, but the rest of you might be wondering what is EasyXL? Essentially EasyXL is a website designed to navigate and download Quantec data into Microsoft Excel effortlessly.

The EasyXL website can be accessed in 2 ways, either sign in on our website or use our EasyXL Add-In for Microsoft Excel which enables some of EasyXL's best features. The Excel Add-In allows you to download time-series data into Excel, save the spreadsheet and come back at a later time and refresh your spreadsheet with the latest data points. There's no need to go back to the website and select your data again. You can simply click on the Add-In's refresh button and your spreadsheet will automatically be updated with the latest available data points.

Additional benefits of using EasyXL are its speed, simplicity and intuitive user interface. Finding and downloading the data you need takes 3 easy steps. The website also allows you to apply frequency changes and percentage changes to any time-series in our South African Economic Indicators data collections.

If you're subscribed to our RSA and Global Economic Indicators database and you're ready to try out EasyXL, then simply sign in or download the EasyXL Add-In for Excel. Alternatively learn more and take a quick tour of EasyXL. more...

Making the business case for Africa

We would like to inform you about a new syndicated research programme by the Economist Intelligence Unit for multinational companies operating in Africa.

To the world's leading multinational companies, Africa presents a conundrum.

As a vast, young, and largely untapped market, the continent represents the last frontier for companies to achieve high growth. Africa currently accounts for around 1% of multinational companies' global sales—mostly from key markets like South Africa. But the region produces around 3% of global economic output and has 15% of the world's population. GDP growth is picking up and Africa looks set to be the fastest-growing region over the next five years, at an average of over 6%.

Pioneering companies have shown they can realise that potential over the past few years, clocking up some of the world's highest growth rates and enjoying an excellent return on investment. But it's not simple. Markets are fragmented and mostly tiny. Despite a few pockets of prosperity, much of the continent is mired in poverty, made worse by bad governance and social unrest. These problems are now compounded by soaring food and commodity prices that risk choking purchasing power and fueling social discontent. Companies hoping to unlock Africa's business potential will have to look beyond the current climate to understand the longer-term drivers of the continent's development. more...