We anticipated that we would face significant headwinds in 2017. Our core South African market has experienced significant political and policy uncertainty since 2015, which severely suppressed business and investor confidence. Private sector investment largely stalled as a result, with the economy entering a period of pedestrian growth. Downgrades in South Africa’s sovereign credit ratings to below investment grade amidst regular reports of the extent of corruption in the country, dealt further blows to an already fragile environment. This largely prevented South Africa from sharing in the benefits of an improved global economic environment. Sentiment changed abruptly in December 2017 following the outcome of the African National Congress’s national elective conference and renewed optimism that South Africa’s challenges will be addressed through close cooperation between government, business and labour. The local equity and bond markets responded with year-end rallies after remaining subdued for a large part of the year. The rand also strengthened further from its end-2016 closing position, contributing to much stronger average exchange rates in 2017 against most of the major currencies.

The economies of oil-dependent countries where we operate, in particular Nigeria and Angola, experienced pressure from low oil prices, negatively affecting economic growth, currency exchange rates and liquidity. High levels of government debt in Namibia impacted on public sector expenditure, liquidity in the banking sector, and economic growth. Operating conditions elsewhere where we operate were, however, in general more supportive of growth in 2017. India in particular started to recover from demonetisation and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax, while non-oil commodity-based economies benefited from improved terms of trade.

Read more about Our economic and operating environment and the outlook for 2018.