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- The total growth for online retail in South Africa in 2020 came to 66%, bringing the total to R30.2bn, reports MyBroadband.co.za. This was one of the findings of Online Retail in South Africa 2021 – a study conducted by World Wide Worx with the support of Mastercard, Standard Bank and Platinum Seed. The study revealed that the total growth for online retail in South Africa in 2020 came to 66%, bringing the total of online retail in South Africa to R30.2bn. “The most astonishing aspect of this total is that it is more than double the R14.1bn reached in 2018, in just two years,” said World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck.
- South Africans aren’t anti-vaccers. In fact, at least seven in every 10 adults surveyed in the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey – would get a jab if it was available. So far, less than 420 o00 health care workers have been vaccinated in South Africa. The opposition Democratic Alliance describes this slow roll-out of vaccines, particularly among healthcare workers, as ‘the greatest injustice’ – and points out that the country is possibly on the brink of a third wave of infections and other variants of the pandemic have been detected in the country.
- Dutch-listed technology investor Prosus NV plans to raise its stake in South African parent Naspers to nearly 50% in a share swap deal that will move part of their huge holding in China’s Tencent to Amsterdam from Johannesburg.
- The oil supply glut that built up after the pandemic forced producing countries to slash output has almost returned to normal levels, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday. BizNews partner The Wall Street Journal quotes it as saying that the oil supply glut that built up after the pandemic forced producing countries to slash output has almost returned to normal levels. In its monthly report, the IEA cut its 2021 global demand growth forecast by 270,000 barrels to 5.4 million barrels a day. Demand in Europe and the Americas in the first quarter was weaker than previously thought, the IEA said.
- US consumer inflation rose far more than expected in Apr 2021 to 4.2%y/y, with core inflation up at 3%. Stanlib Chief economist Kevin Lings notes that US inflation could remain uncomfortably high for an extended period, unsettling financial markets.