Friday, December 4, 2008
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shona Kohler.
Making headlines:
South Africa's Central Bank governor Tito Mboweni has said that the country's monetary policy committee must take into account the changed global financial and economic environment, when making its decision on interest rates next week.
Mboweni said that while central banks across the world should not take their eye off inflation, they must keep in mind the fact that the global financial system has changed.
The Central Bank lifted the repo rate by a total of 500 basis points between June 2006 and June 2008 in an effort to tame inflation, which has stubbornly remained outside the upper limit of the 3% to 6% target band since April 2007. Key drivers of inflation have been consumer demand, as well as rising fuel and food costs.
The monetary policy committee left rates unchanged in August and October this year, citing an improved inflation outlook, and bond markets. Some analysts believe the committee will cut rates on December 11, given concerns that the domestic economy is feeling the strain of higher rates and a global slowdown.
Globally, policymakers are slashing rates to breathe life into economies straining under the financial crisis.

Also in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to step down or be removed by force.
Tutu said that Mugabe and his cohorts have been responsible for gross violations, and that they should be threatened with indictment in The Hague unless Mugabe steps down. He added that the African Union or the Southern African Development Community would have the capacity to remove Mugabe by force.
Once hailed as a model African democrat, Mugabe has become increasingly criticised over a worsening political and economic crisis that critics blame on his policies.

In world news, delegates at the current United Nations climate talks have said that the economic slowdown will offer respite from surging greenhouse gas emissions, as industrial growth slows. The world will, however, struggle to shift in the long term to new, greener life styles.
Most experts expect the economic downturn to dent the current 3% annual increase in world emissions. But scientist Terry Barker, director of the Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research at Cambridge University, believes that a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930s would mean a fall by 35% in greenhouse gas emissions.
However, lower energy demand has contributed to an oil price crash, and that may discourage a shift to greener life styles as fuels are more readily available. The UN Environment Programme has urged the world to use the economic slowdown to shift to a "Green New Deal". But a change in life styles is harder. Experts say that any emissions slowdown is purely temporary, and only a slight dip in the rising curve.

Also making headlines:
Parliamentarians report that police corruption is a major issue for South Africans.
A World Bank report says that the youth makes up 60% of Africa's unemployed.
A British Minister attacks the United Nations saying that it is unfit to lead the fight against poverty.
And, ratings agency Standard & Poor's warns consumers to brace for a tough 2009.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.