South African Airways, the national carrier, probably incurred a loss for a fifth consecutive year in the past financial period, and would be insolvent without a government-backed guarantee, Bloomberg News reported. The state airline’s loss for the year ending March is estimated at 1.8 billion rand ($124 million), and follows a 4.7 billion loss a year earlier, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in parliament on Tuesday. Gordhan approved a further 4.7 billion rand going-concern guarantee last week that will allow the company to release delayed financial statements on Sept. 15.

South African Airways, the national carrier, probably incurred a loss for a fifth consecutive year in the past financial period, and would be insolvent without a government-backed guarantee, Bloomberg News reported. The state airline’s loss for the year ending March is estimated at 1.8 billion rand ($124 million), and follows a 4.7 billion loss a year earlier, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in parliament on Tuesday. Gordhan approved a further 4.7 billion rand going-concern guarantee last week that will allow the company to release delayed financial statements on Sept. 15.

Weeks after being rebuffed, Ghana has tapped the international bond market again in what will be an important test of a rally in emerging market debt fanned by investors’ scramble to escape the low-yield world of developed markets, the Financial Times reported. West Africa’s second-biggest economy will sell $750m at 9.25 per cent, according to a banker familiar with the sale, before US Federal Reserve officials meet on September 21, when there is a chance, albeit receding, that they will raise interest rates.

The bell tolls for the Nigerian economy as the government and its private sector battle a humongous recession considered the worst in 29 years threatens to wipe off millions of jobs in critical sectors, Nigeria Today reported. As at last weekend, the omnious economic headwind had taken its first casualties in the aviation industry when two prominent indigenous airlines, Aero Contractors and First Nation, announced the suspension of scheduled flight operations, thus throwing over 2500 Nigerians into the labour market.

The head of the African Development Bank has urged the continent’s governments to boost tax revenue and steer clear of international borrowing as the region grapples with its worst economic slump in more than a decade. Akinwumi Adesina told the Financial Times that he expected the downturn in Africa, which was triggered by the slump in commodity prices and the slowdown in China, to last for up to another three years.

Chase Bank has received Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) approval to start taking fixed deposits and resume lending, CAJ News reported. The move marks a major milestone in the turnaround efforts of the bank signaling that most of the major issues under resolution have been addressed, paving the way for full resumption of banking services to all customers. Kenya Depositors’ Insurance Corporation (KDIC) placed the bank under receivership by in April, with KCB Bank Kenya Limited appointed as the Receiver Manager.

One of the briefest sovereign defaults in history? The Republic of Congo today made a belated but full interest payment on a $478m bond, after mysteriously failing to do so on the due date on June 30, resulting in rating agencies declaring a sovereign default at the end of last month, writes Robin Wigglesworth in New York, the Financial Times reported.

As oil-dependent Nigeria slides towards recession for the first time in more than two decades, the effects of the downturn are being felt across the country — in local markets, factories, government offices and among informal traders, the Financial Times reported. The International Monetary Fund last month sharply slashed its growth forecast for Africa’s largest economy, saying it would contract by 1.8 per cent this year, down from its estimate in April of 2.3 per cent growth for the year.

Mozambique’s central bank raised its key rate by 300 basis points to 17.25 percent, the fourth rate increase this year, as it tries to put a lid on soaring prices in the cash-strapped southern African nation, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Policymakers also increased the interest rate on the standing deposit facility to 10.25 percent from 7.25 percent, Governor Ernesto Gove said.

South Africa’s central bank stood by its main interest rate Thursday, as the threat of near-recession outweighed intensifying inflation risks facing the continent’s most developed economy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the risks to growth were too great raise the bank’s main “repo” rate above 7.0 percent. Kganyago has raised rates three times in the past year in an effort to curb inflation that has shot above the bank’s 6 percent target ceiling.