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Thursday 31st of October 2019 |
Inside the WhatsApp hack: how an Israeli technology was used to spy @FT Law & Politics |
Earlier this year, Faustin Rukundo’s phone started to ring at odd times. The calls were always on WhatsApp — sometimes from a Scandinavian number, sometimes a video call — but the caller would hang-up before he could answer. When he rang back no one would pick up. Mr Rukundo, a British citizen who lives in Leeds, had reason to be suspicious. As a member of a Rwandan opposition group in exile, he has lived for several years in fear of the security services of the central African nation where he was born. In 2017, his wife, also a British national, was arrested and held for two months in Rwanda when she returned for her father’s funeral. Unidentified men in black suits have previously queried her co-workers about her route to the childcare centre where she works, he says. His own name has shown up in a widely circulated list of enemies of the government of Rwanda titled “Those who must be killed immediately”. In the two decades since Paul Kagame became president of Rwanda, dozens of dissidents have disappeared or died in unexplained circumstances around the world. In response, those willing to criticise the regime or organise against it, such as Mr Rukundo, say they have learnt to be cautious, masking their presence on the internet and using encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp. But the missed WhatsApp calls were more ominous. Powered by a technology built not in Rwanda but in Israel, the calls were a harbinger of Pegasus, an all-seeing spyware so powerful that the Israeli government classifies it as a weapon. Developed and sold by the Herzlia-based NSO Group, which is part-owned by a UK-based private equity group called Novalpina Capital, Pegasus was designed to worm its way into phones such as Mr Rukundo’s and start transmitting the owner’s location, their encrypted chats, travel plans — and even the voices of people the owners met — to servers around the world. Since 2012, NSO has devised various ways to deliver Pegasus to targeted phones — sometimes as a malicious link in a text message, or a redirected website that infected the device. But by May this year, the FT reported, NSO had developed a new method by weaponising a vulnerability in WhatsApp, used by 1.5bn people globally, to deliver Pegasus completely surreptitiously. The user did not even have to answer the phone but once delivered, the software instantly used flaws in the device’s operating system to turn it into a secret eavesdropping tool. WhatsApp quickly closed the vulnerability and launched a six-month investigation into the abuse of its platforms. The probe, carried out in secrecy, makes apparent for the first time the extent — and nature — of the surveillance operations that NSO has enabled. In recent days, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which studies digital surveillance around the world and is working in partnership with WhatsApp, started to notify journalists, human rights activists and other members of civil society — like Mr Rukundo — whose phones had been targeted using the spyware. It also provided help to defend themselves in the future. NSO — which was valued at $1bn in a leveraged buyout backed by Novalpina in February — says its technology is sold only to carefully vetted customers and used to prevent terrorism and crime. NSO has said it respects human rights unequivocally, and it conducts a thorough evaluation of the potential for misuse of its products by clients, which includes a review of a country’s past human rights record and governance standards. The company believes the allegations of misuse of its products are based on “erroneous information”. The NSO Group said in a statement: “In the strongest possible terms, we dispute today’s allegations and will vigorously fight them. Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists.” But WhatsApp’s internal investigation undercuts the efficacy of such vetting. In the roughly two weeks before WhatsApp closed the vulnerability, at least 1,400 people around the world were targeted through missed calls on the platform, including 100 members of “civil society”, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. This is “an unmistakable pattern of abuse”, the Facebook-owned business said. “There must be strong legal oversight of cyber weapons like the one used in this attack to ensure they are not used to violate individual rights and freedoms people deserve wherever they live. Human rights groups have documented a disturbing trend that such tools have been used to attack journalists and human rights defenders.” The two-week snapshot provides a rare glimpse of how some of NSO’s clients use its spyware — with greater frequency than previously known, and often to monitor people unrelated to terrorism or criminal activity. Those targeted include people from at least 20 countries, across four continents, with many showing clear evidence that the attempted intrusions had nothing to do with preventing terrorism, says John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab. Earlier research by Citizen Lab had already traced Pegasus to the phones of human rights activists, journalists and dissidents from at least 45 countries including Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. After years of criticism, NSO had claimed to have found only a handful of cases of abuse.
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"Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene." (US Navy Geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayus Mahan (1840-1914)) @GRTVnews Law & Politics |
In May 2018, acting as a US proxy, the UAE established a military base on the island, seizing control of both Socotra’s airport and seaport. The Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometres off the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres South of the Yemeni coastline. The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site. Socotra is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (See map below). It is of crucial importance to the US military. Among Washington’s strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China’s industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. (see map below). A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden. “The [Indian] Ocean is a major sea lane connecting the Middle East, East Asia and Africa with Europe and the Americas. It has four crucial access waterways facilitating international maritime trade, that is the Suez Canal in Egypt, Bab-el-Mandeb (bordering Djibouti and Yemen), Straits of Hormuz (bordering Iran and Oman), and Straits of Malacca (bordering Indonesia and Malaysia). These ‘chokepoints’ are critical to world oil trade as huge amounts of oil pass through them.” (Amjed Jaaved, A new hot-spot of rivalry, Pakistan Observer, July 1, 2009) From a military standpoint, the Socotra archipelago is at a strategic maritime crossroads. Morever, the archipelago extends over a relatively large maritime area at the Eastern exit of the Gulf of Aden, from the island of Abd al Kuri, to the main island of Socotra. (See map 1 above and 2b below) This maritime area of international transit lies in Yemeni territorial waters. The objective of the US is to police the entire Gulf of Aden seaway from the Yemeni to Somalian coastline. (See map 1). Socotra is some 3000 km from the US naval base of Diego Garcia, which is among America’s largest overseas military facilities. The proposed US Socotra military facility, however, is not limited to an air force base. A US naval base has also been contemplated. The establishment of a US military base in Socotra is part of the broader process of militarization of the Indian Ocean. The latter consists in integrating and linking Socotra into an existing structure as well as reinforcing the key role played by the Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos archipelago. The US Navy’s geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred T. Mahan had intimated, prior to First World War, that “whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean [will] be a prominent player on the international scene.”.(Indian Ocean and our Security). What was at stake in Rear Admiral Mahan’s writings was the strategic control by the US of major Ocean sea ways and of the Indian Ocean in particular: “This ocean is the key to the seven seas in the twenty-first century; the destiny of the world will be decided in these waters.”
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28-OCT-2019 :: From Russia with Love Law & Politics |
“Late to the party: Russia’s return to Africa.” tweeted @pstronski. “Our African agenda is positive and future-oriented'' Putin’s linguistics is an art form and I imagine he buttressed the above points by discreetly showing his visitors a photo of a dead Gaddafi and maybe he dwelled a little on the bottle and then a Photo of a spritely Bashar Assad and would surely not even have had to ask the question; what’s the difference? Between 2006 and 2018 Russia’s trade with Africa increased by 335 per cent, more than both China’s and India’s according to the Espresso Economist.Russia is now Africa’s leading supplier of arms. According to the Swedish think tank SIPRI, between 2012 and 2016 Russia had become the largest supplier of arms to Africa, accounting for 35 percent of arms exports to the region“Russia regards Africa as an important and active participant in the emerging polycentric archi- tecture of the world order and an ally in protecting international law against attempts to undermine it,” the story of a brave but beleaguered Central African lion, who was fighting a losing battle against a pack of hungry hyenas. Luckily the lion had a friend who came to the rescue — the strong Russian bear I would argue Putin’s timing is exquisite and optimal and his Model has an exponential ROI. Russia’s “political technologists” have reportedly devised bespoke solutions for confronting in- cipient and ongoing color revolutions Once we look through the Optics of two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers belonging to the Russian Air Force landing in Pretoria for the aircraft’s first-ever landing on the African continent and, according to an embassy official, only the second country in which it has made a public appearance outside of Russia.The first was Venezuela. Then we need to see this move for what it is. It is meaningful.Where Xi is fed up and speaks about the ‘’The End of Vanity’’ becau-se the ROI [outside commodities and telecoms for China] is negative, Putin has created a hybrid model with an exponential ROI. I would imagine he is on speed dial.
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'A New Message': Russia Trains Its Propaganda Machine on Africa @nytimes Law & Politics |
SOCHI, Russia — Jose Matemulane said he left his native Mozambique nearly two decades ago, spent years studying in St. Petersburg and saw the Russian soul. Now he’s in the vanguard of Russia’s new foray onto his home continent, where he is spreading the word that working with Moscow to reduce the influence of Americans and other Westerners is in Africa’s best interests. “The Russians have their own way of thinking different from the Western patterns,” Mr. Matemulane said. “I used to tell people: Russians are nothing else than white Africans, white blacks.” Russia has been playing for power in Africa in recent years by sending arms, offering mercenaries, and cinching mining deals. More quietly, it has started to set up a low-profile infrastructure of political influence that bears echoes of the Kremlin’s strategy in Europe and the United States. And it is already identifying African politicians and activists who will carry its message. Deploying its international propaganda arms, the television channel RT and the Sputnik news agency, the Kremlin is honing this message: While Western Europe and the United States are continuing a centuries-old tradition of exploiting Africa, Moscow is ready to engage with Africa on mutually beneficial terms. Russia is also benefiting from a desire by African countries to lessen their reliance on China, even as Moscow acknowledges that it cannot come close to matching Beijing’s financial firepower. Mr. Matemulane runs a think tank called Afric, which describes itself on its website as “funded by donors with a common passion to foster Africa’s development,” without mentioning Russia. In an interview, though, Mr. Matemulane said the group was launched last year with support from a St. Petersburg businessman he declined to name. Afric received prominent billing at a summit for dozens of African leaders hosted by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week, and announced it would partner with a Russian propaganda specialist who had previously focused on the United States. It also drew the notice of Mamadou Koulibaly, a candidate for president of Ivory Coast in elections next year. “I will ask them if they can introduce me to people with money who will help me,” Mr. Koulibaly said of Afric. “This is important. A campaign needs money.” Moscow has already injected itself into the geopolitics of Libya and the Central African Republic. Now it is looking for inroads in public opinion and the political elite across the continent. Earlier this year, for example, Russia’s ambassador to Ghana met with Albert Kofi Owusu, the head of Ghana’s main news agency, and discussed a proposal: Might Mr. Owusu distribute stories from Tass, a Russian state-controlled news service, to newspapers, websites and television stations in the West African country? Mr. Owusu said the proposal made sense, especially since his agency was already sharing Chinese state media reports. In October, Mr. Owusu was here on Russia’s glittering Black Sea coast, shaking hands with Mr. Putin. “Very simple man, cool,” is how Mr. Owusu described Mr. Putin, who held a brief meeting at the conference with the heads of 11 African news agencies. Russian officials at the conference said that the Kremlin’s RT and Sputnik would be glad to host African journalists in Moscow for training courses on topics such as social media. “We understand that getting to Moscow costs quite a bit of money, and this may well be too expensive for African newsrooms,” Alexei Volin, Russia’s deputy minister for communications and mass media, added after making the pitch. “We are ready to consider possibilities for RT and Sputnik specialists to organize courses on the ground in this or that African country.” Mr. Volin said RT was ready to provide its suite of documentaries to African TV stations. In addition to animal movies, the library includes features like “Drift It Like Putin’s Driver” and “Coups R Us: American Regime Changes and Their Aftermaths.” Perhaps the most prominent figure in Russia’s Africa push is Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the St. Petersburg businessman indicted by the United States for running the online “troll farm” that sought to sway the 2016 American presidential election, who is said to run a military contractor called Wagner that is involved in several African countries. Another is Konstantin Malofeev, a nationalist banker under American sanctions who has cultivated ties with far-right politicians in Europe and the United States, as well as pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Prigozhin did not appear in public at the conference, but Mr. Malofeev had a stand right by the entrance showing off a new project: an agency promising to help African governments gain access to financing as an alternative to Western sources like the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Malofeev described the new organization, called the International Agency for Sovereign Development, as an economic approach to the ideological battle he’s been fighting for a long time: breaking the Western world order. But it was the first time he’s ever been involved with Africa, Mr. Malofeev said. Niger, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo have already signed on to have the agency help them raise a total of $2.5 billion, he said. “I oppose liberal totalitarianism,” Mr. Malofeev said in an interview in the private meeting room at his stand, under a portrait of Mr. Putin. “I’m against the global dominance of the Federal Reserve System.” Russia says the yearly volume of its trade with Africa has doubled to $20 billion over the last five years, but that still pales in comparison to Africa’s $300 billion in trade with the European Union and $60 billion with the United States in 2018. In the West, Russia’s messaging has sought to appeal to people disenchanted by the political mainstream — from opponents of immigration and same-sex-marriage on the right to critics of capitalism on the left. In Africa, Russia is similarly trumpeting itself as a protector of “traditional values,” while also seeking to capitalize on Russia’s Cold War past, when the Soviet Union sought to ally itself with opponents of post-colonial influence on the continent. “Our cooperation, rooted in the period of the joint fight against colonialism, is strategic and longstanding,” Mr. Putin told dozens of African leaders in Sochi gathered alongside him around a ring-shaped table. Alexander Malkevich, a veteran of Russia’s propaganda wars, founded an English-language website called USAReally, which tells the story of a declining America caught in the throes of violence. Now, he says, he spends about one-third of his time on Africa. His Foundation for National Values Protection, with a website available in English and French, argues that African countries are vulnerable to the same sort of Western meddling that Russian officials say undermined former Soviet republics like Georgia and Ukraine. “We try to do our work honestly and address our partners with respect, rather than from above, like the caricature of Uncle Sam,” Mr. Malkevich said. Investigative journalists have reported that Afric and Mr. Malkevich’s foundation are funded by Mr. Prigozhin, but Mr. Malkevich and Afric employees denied any connection. Afric’s Mozambique-born president, Mr. Matemulane, said it was in fact a different St. Petersburg-based businessman who helped him launch Afric, but declined to identify him. In Sochi, Mr. Malkevich and Mr. Matemulane appeared on a panel together and signed a “cooperation agreement.” “The Western system is broken,” said Clifton Ellis, who is British and Jamaican, and moved to St. Petersburg recently, where he helps coordinate Afric’s activities. “We have to fight the narrative that because Russia is involved, it’s bad.” Afric — an acronym for Association for Free Research and International Cooperation — is building ties with African politicians and commentators while publishing articles that extol the benefits of cooperating with Russia. It has also invested heavily in election monitoring missions that mirror Russia’s approach in its own elections: bringing in sympathetic foreigners who praise the votes’ fairness and transparency, even as established Western organizations criticize them. One of those, Volker Tschapke, the retired president of a small conservative German association called the Prussian Society, extolled Mr. Putin’s re-election vote in March of last year. Since the summer of 2018, Mr. Tschapke has made five separate trips to Africa on behalf of Afric to observe elections in Zimbabwe, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Mozambique. “It was unimaginably great. In all the countries I visited, I saw truly perfect elections,” said Mr. Tschapke, who acknowledges that he had no experience in election observation until last year. But he says the process is really so simple that “you just need a little instruction.” He added in a telephone interview from Berlin that he had heard rumors that Afric had received Russian start-up funding, but said he had no problem with that. Major elections loom next year across Africa, including in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Burundi. Mr. Koulibaly, the candidate in Ivory Coast presidential elections next October, said he had already met with a Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, as well as with Russian agriculture and mining officials. He said he would talk about Russia in his campaign as a potential economic partner that, for instance, can help Ivory Coast harness nuclear technology. “My experience is that the Russian authorities I meet with want business,” Mr. Koulibaly said. “They don’t talk about ideology. They don’t talk about political control.” African leaders have also taken notice of Russia’s expanded influence in the Middle East as a sign that Moscow is becoming a more formidable geopolitical player. In an interview, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the foreign minister of Djibouti, ticked off countries that he said suffered as a result of misguided Western policies — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon. “Why shouldn’t we try a new approach? A new message?” Mr. Youssouf said. “Maybe Russia is the alternative.”
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@StanChart Gets Boost Where @HSBC Flagged Setbacks @economics World Currencies |
Standard Chartered Plc is showing strength where HSBC Holdings Plc cited weakness. The lender generated 19% more revenue in Europe and the Americas in the third quarter -- regions HSBC flagged as disappointing this week as it vowed an overhaul. Standard Chartered’s results there, combined with a 2% increase in revenue from Greater China and North Asia, sent adjusted pretax profit up 16%, defying analysts’ predictions for a slight decline. The figures are a sign the London-based bank has put the worst behind it four years after Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters took over to tackle issues ranging from a bloated cost base to government probes. The company said it’s sticking to a target to boost return on tangible equity to 10% by 2021, even as it faces “growing headwinds” from geopolitical tensions, slowing economic growth and lower interest rates. “Our strategy of the last few years has progressively created a stronger and more resilient business,” Winters said in a statement announcing results Wednesday. “The continuing execution of that strategy remains our priority, enabling us to face the more challenging external environment confidently.” “Management are executing on cost control and financial markets revenues are providing a tailwind to slowing transaction banking,” wrote analysts at Jefferies International Ltd. in London in a client note. “But, as with HSBC and others, the question remains whether or not investors wish to reward banks with a rising contribution from financial markets.” Altogether, Standard Chartered said revenue climbed 7% while costs were little changed from a year earlier. Adjusted pretax profit was $1.24 billion, beating the consensus analyst estimate compiled by the company for profit to slip to $1.06 billion. In Europe and the Americas, the company pointed to growth across treasury, corporate finance and financial markets businesses. HSBC had flagged declines in revenue in Europe and North America, calling its performance there “not acceptable.” The Asia-focused firm said revenue also rose in Hong Kong. Prolonged protests in the city, Standard Chartered’s largest single market, have weighed on the local economy. Like HSBC, Standard Chartered said it had seen wealthy clients in Hong Kong exploring opening accounts outside of the Chinese territory. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television, the bank’s Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford said a “number of clients” were looking to set up additional accounts, but added the bank had yet to see significant outflows of money from Hong Kong. “It’s not big time, but it is a number of clients that are looking to do that,” he said. The bank also predicted costs will be higher in this year’s second half than in the first, as it plows money into growing business. Speaking on a call with reporters, Halford said that achieving the bank’s target of a 10% return on tangible equity by 2021 was becoming harder as expectations grow for interest rate cuts, but insisted the aim was “not out of sight at this point in time.” The firm has been investing billions of dollars in technology as part of a digital strategy unveiled earlier this year. The lender won one of Hong Kong’s first licenses to open a virtual bank and opened online-only banks across Africa to attract new customers. Client adoption of digital channels “continued to improve,” the company said Wednesday.
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5 Russian Mercenaries Reportedly Killed in Mozambique Ambush @MoscowTimes Africa |
Five Russian mercenaries are believed to have been killed alongside 20 Mozambique servicemen during an ambush in the southeastern African nation, the independent Carta de Moçambique news outlet reported Tuesday. The unconfirmed report comes a month after the reported arrival of 200 Russian mercenaries and three helicopters to help Mozambique’s government forces fight jihadists amid Moscow’s wider push for influence on the continent. On Oct. 8, two days after the reported death of a Russian national, the Kremlin denied that it had deployed any government troops in Mozambique. “Five Russian members of the Wagner Group, which is helping the Mozambican government tackle violence in that area of the country, are ... reported to have died,” Carta de Moçambique cited unnamed sources as saying.
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Life on the Zambezi Is Hard. The Climate Crisis Is Making It Deadly @BW @mattstephenhill & @ZinyangePhoto Africa |
For millions of people across southern Africa, the Zambezi River serves as highway, fishing ground, water fountain, laundromat, and swimming hole. From its source—a trickling spring in the highlands of northwestern Zambia—the river winds almost 1,700 miles through the forests of eastern Angola and along the borders with Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe before fanning out into a delta with dozens of channels in Mozambique. As global warming intensifies, the Zambezi basin and other impoverished coastal or riverine communities worldwide are increasingly at risk. “For Africa, climate change is not a remote prospect, it is a crisis now,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in August. A two-week journey down the Zambezi shows the hardships faced by those whose livelihoods depend on the river. Water on the upper reaches is near its lowest level in a half-century because of drought, resulting in crop failures, a collapse in fish stocks, and a sharp drop in power from dams that provide Zambia with 80% of its electricity. In Mozambique, flooding from a pair of vicious cyclones has killed hundreds and caused billions of dollars in damage. With too much water in many places and too little in others, this year’s harvest of corn—the region’s staple food—has been almost entirely wiped out across large areas. The World Food Program says a record number of people in the region—45 million—face severe food insecurity because of climate change. Angola will need more than 1.2 million metric tons of grain to make up for its failed harvest. In Mozambique, the International Monetary Fund has cut its 2019 growth forecast below 2%, the lowest in almost two decades. Zimbabwe is facing the worst food shortages in its history. In western Zambia, the Lozi people canceled an annual ceremony called the Kuomboka, where the king travels by royal barge to higher ground when the Zambezi’s lowlands flood; the chief in charge of the ceremony says he’s never seen a drought this bad in his 73 years, with marshy areas that should be underwater at the end of the rainy season dry enough to drive through. Zambia’s president, Edgar Lungu, mentioned climate change 44 times in his annual address to parliament in September. His government has even considered a canal linking the Zambezi with the Congo River—a near-impossibility because it would require pumping water uphill. “The inability to have adequate water, generate enough power, and grow enough food to feed our people have all been greatly caused by climate change,” Lungu told the assembled parliamentarians. “This is a very serious matter that should not be taken lightly.” —With Taonga Clifford Mitimingi and Borges Nhamire
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Rand Sinks After South Africa Spells Out Burden of Saving @Eskom_SA @markets Africa |
The rand plummeted and bonds extended declines after investors were presented with the stark reality of what bailouts for the embattled state power utility will cost South Africa. The currency retreated 2%, the most since August and the biggest drop in emerging markets, to 14.9240 per dollar, as of 2:51 p.m. in Johannesburg. The yield on local-currency debt due 2026 jumped 18 basis points to 8.38%. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will receive 138 billion rand ($9.4 billion) in bailouts through March 2022, or 10 billion rand more than previously allocated, according to the medium-term budget policy statement released by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni on Wednesday. He warned that extra support may be needed if plans to turn the loss-making utility around are delayed. That means South Africa’s government debt will top 70% of gross domestic product in the next three years and may continue rising after that as bailouts for state-owned companies boost spending, according to the National Treasury. The ratio was previously projected to rise to 60.2% in 2024, before decreasing in subsequent years. A combination of bailouts for government firms, declining economic growth and falling tax revenue will cause the budget deficit to widen to 5.9% of gross domestic product in the fiscal year. “The South African rand is traveling back towards the 15 level as the medium-term budget statement compounds investors fears,” Simon Harvey, a London-based market analyst at Monex Europe Ltd. “Ballooning projected debt-to-GDP levels, increased government support for Eskom, and a widening budget deficit doesn’t bode well for an economy struggling for growth while under the microscope of both foreign investors and rating agencies.”
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