South Africa slips into recession

South Africa's economy fell into recession in the second quarter of 2018, contracting by 0.7% after a decline in GDP between January and March.

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Cyril Ramaphosa may struggle to win a convincing election victory and push through reforms
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Emerging-market stocks have slipped into a bear market, falling by 20% from their latest peak. But this "should not be regarded as evidence of a systemic crisis", says Lex in the Financial Times. Keep the big picture in mind. Developing economies should still manage to grow by 5% this year and they have gradually reduced their vulnerability to crises by keeping a lid on inflation and public and foreign-currency debt in recent years. Debtmaturities have become longer too.

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Marina Gerner is an award-winning journalist and columnist who has written for the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist, The Guardian and Standpoint magazine in the UK; the New York Observer in the US; and die Bild and Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany.

Marina is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business at their London campus, and has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Her first book, The Vagina Business, deals with the potential of “femtech” to transform women’s lives, and will be published by Icon Books in September 2024.

Marina is trilingual and lives in London.