Africa’s Worst-Performing Debt Is Facing Inflation Hurdle

Shoppers walk through a market in the central business district (CBD) of Pretoria, South Africa, on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. South Africa's government met Tuesday to discuss how to accelerate the country's economic recovery and consider the most feasible way to provide further welfare grants. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Colleen Goko and Prinesha Naidoo, Bloomberg News

Sep 22, 2021

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(Bloomberg) -- The worst-performing government debt in Africa is facing another headwind: a South African inflation spike. Consumer prices climbed 4.9% in August from a year earlier, the first increase in three months, data may show on Wednesday, according to the median of 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The bonds of Africa’s most-industrialized economy have dropped 2.3% in dollar terms this quarter amid a record selloff by foreign investors, the only losers among peers in Africa and the Middle East, according to a Bloomberg Emerging Market Local Currency Index.

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