Wednesday March 28, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Natalie Greve

Making headlines:

South Africa’s power supply constraint has the potential to act as a “hand brake” on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth outlook and is an “underappreciated” downside risk, a domestic banking group has warned. Absa Capital economist Jeffrey Schultz describes that power shortfall as one of the “idiosyncratic” factors that is likely to act as a drag on domestic economic expansion during 2012, as well as over the medium term. It was also a factor in the Barclays affiliate’s decision to revise down its GDP outlook for 2012, from the 2.8% it forecast in December to the 2.7% outlined in its second-quarter outlook statement.

The Brics group of emerging world powerhouses – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is expected to launch plans this week for a joint development bank and measures to bring their stock exchanges closer together. Officials say the initiatives will take time as they need to sort out details. But they herald a new level of ambition for a bloc that brings together about half the world's people. The Middle East and energy security will also be discussed, officials say. The initiative would allow the countries to pool resources for infrastructure improvements, and could also be used in the longer term as a vehicle for lending during global financial crises such as the one in Europe, officials say.

The UN Security Council expressed alarm at recent clashes between Sudan and South Sudan along their disputed border and urged both sides to halt military operations, warning the fighting could escalate into a new war. Sudan and South Sudan blamed each other for the fighting. South Sudan said its neighbor Sudan launched air strikes on major oilfields in its Unity state yesterday, in one of the most serious reported confrontations since the South declared independence from Sudan in July. "The Security Council call upon the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to exercise maximum restraint and sustain purposeful dialogue in order to address peacefully the issues that are fueling the mistrust between the two countries," the council said in a statement.

Also making headlines:

Mali's neighbours threatened on Tuesday to use sanctions and a readiness to use military force to dislodge the army leaders behind last week's coup, urging them to quickly hand back power to civilian rulers.

And, Senegal's Macky Sall won his West African country's presidential election with 65.80% of the vote, which European observers said was credible and trouble-free.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.