Angola Next

Most investor attention remains locked into the expected formal declaration that Uhuru Kenyatta has secured victory in the Kenyan Presidential election. The Nairobi All-Share is up by over 4% on the week while the Kenyan Shilling has remained stable against the US Dollar around 103.6. The electoral focus will now shift to Angola, whose citizens go to the polls on August 23.

In any case, there have been several other significant market developments across the continent today.

Angola and Namibia saw their sovereign credit ratings take a hit. In both cases the rising burden of public sector debt was a key driver. S&P downgraded Angola to ‘B-’ (stable outlook) from ‘B‘ by S&P while Moody's cut Namibia from to Ba1 negative outlook) from ‘Baa3’.

On the interest rate front, with headline inflation falling to to 16.2% y/y percent in July, the lowest level since March last year, the Central Bank of Mozambique trimmed its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 21.5%. Meanwhile, the Bank of Uganda kept its key policy rate at 10%. The BoU expect core inflation is expected to remain around the medium-term 5% target while activity is expected to firm over the rest of the year.