Simon’s weekly wrap: Dollar weakness but it’s not the end of the US$

I chatted with Johann Els Old Mutual’s chief economist on their 2025 Mid-Year Economic Landscape outlook. Overall, they’re not pessimistic, but there certainly are some concerns around the US. Locally, he’s of the view that our economy is trending in the right direction and we should get close to 3% GDP growth in the next few years. However, he expects only one more rate cut from our MPC in this cycle.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

The local Exchange Traded Product (ETP) market continues to grow, and I chatted with ETFSA director Mike Brown about the first half of the year. We’re seeing lots of new active ETPs being issued and capital continues to flow into the market. Overall, this gives a nice boost to the size of the industry with new capital and growth in existing ETPs due to rising markets.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

The US$ has been strong for the last decade-and-a-half and I chatted with Sahil Mahtani from Ninety One asking if this trend is about to reverse. He points to four conditions that have reversed US$ strength before and all are in place for a weaker US$ that could last for a decade or more. Importantly this is not about the end of the US$, rather just a normal trend reversal.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

We’re seeing huge growth in payments locally and I spoke with Israel Skosana of BankservAfrica about the trends. PayShap is certainly a leader but we’re also seeing telcos and other industries enter the payment space and we’re definitely a global leader in this emerging payment sector.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.