Lions eat springboks

18 October 2012 By Martin Hutchinson

Zambia’s recent Eurobond success highlights how cellphones, the Web and cheap money are allowing Africa to leverage its resources and labor more effectively. But growth needs decent governance and civil peace too. Higher-cost South Africa looks shaky on both counts.

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Zambia’s first Eurobond, of $500 million for 10 years, issued on Sept. 13 and assigned a rating of B-plus by Standard and Poor’s, was increased to $750 million and tightened by 0.25 percentage point to 5.625 percent after generating an order book of more than $11 billion.
In its October World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund projected real GDP growth of 5 percent in 2012 and 5.7 percent in 2013 for sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa’s growth is forecast at 2.6 percent for 2012 and 3 percent for 2013.

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