South Africa’s central bank cut interest rates for the first time in four years and signaled a more optimistic outlook for inflation, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary policy committee reduced its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 8%, Governor Lesetja Kganyago told reporters at a briefing north of Johannesburg on Thursday. That matched the median estimate of 24 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Only one analyst had penciled in a 50 basis-point cut.

Zimbabwe’s creditors may be willing to consider a debt-for-climate swap with the nation as part of a restructure of its $21 billion in arrears, Bloomberg News reported. Interactions with the nation’s development partners indicate it is “an option that they are willing to consider,” Raul Fernandez, a United Nations Development Program project manager for climate development frameworks, said at a summit Monday hosted by the country’s Treasury in the resort city of Victoria Falls. “They need to see some action from the government, this commitment to structural reforms,” he said.

South Africa's Land Bank has reached an agreement with its lenders to cure its debt default, the South African government said on Friday, Reuters reported. The state-owned agricultural bank defaulted on its debt in April 2020 and missed a restructuring deadline in March 2021. It had failed to agree a "liability solution" to emerge from default until now. "This... provides a basis for the bank's turnaround and rebuilding of its essential role in the South African economy and the agricultural sector in particular," the government said in a statement issued on behalf of Land Bank.

South Africa's justice minister on Friday denied corruption allegations against her related to a mutual bank scandal in which thousands of retirees lost their life savings, the Associated Press reported. VBS Mutual Bank, which held the savings of retirees mostly from the northern Limpopo province and also unlawfully secured investments from local municipalities, was declared insolvent and bankrupt in 2018 after it emerged that more than 2 billion rand ($112 million) had been stolen from the bank.

A group of Ghana’s commercial creditors including BlackRock Inc. and Abrdn Plc backed the government’s offer to exchange about $13 billion of eurobonds for restructured notes, a crucial part of the West African nation’s debt rework, Bloomberg News reported. “The committee considers that the legal and financial terms of the exchange offer and consent solicitation are in line with the agreement in principle reached between the committee and Ghana in June,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. Investors will be able to swap their debt until Sept.

Kenya’s local borrowing costs are stuck near the highest in almost a decade as uncertainty over funding options mounts, Bloomberg News reported. Protests over tax hikes sought by the International Monetary Fund turned deadly in June and ultimately forced the government to backtrack. With the latest IMF aid tranche on hold for now, officials are opting instead to boost sales of shilling-denominated bonds, keeping yields on the local debt elevated. While a surprise interest-rate cut last month has lowered yields across the curve, borrowing costs remain close to the highest since December 2015.

South African retailer Spar Group Ltd. is considering an offer to acquire cash-strapped West Pack Lifestyle, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s second-largest grocer by revenue previously said it plans to expand beyond the food segment and win more market share in South Africa. West Pack, which sells homeware, has gone into business rescue — a local form of bankruptcy protection. The group also sits on a large debt pile that a purchaser would have to take on.

Angola’s Finance Ministry said it will extend the practice of paying local suppliers with Treasury bills because the oil-rich nation’s government doesn’t have sufficient cash, Bloomberg News reported. The state may sell new securities to cover the payments to suppliers, Yona Amado, coordinator of arrears at the ministry’s Public Debt Management unit, said at a conference in Luanda, Angola’s capital. “This may cause some discomfort for creditors,” Amado said.

After a new tax increase incited weeks of deadly riots in Kenya early this summer, President William Ruto announced that he was reversing course. He abandoned the finance law he had proposed, and then he shook up his cabinet. Last week, the government reversed itself again, the New York Times reported. The newly appointed finance minister announced that some of those discarded tax increases would be reintroduced.