What's wrong with South Africa?

The study of emerging markets is a useful exercise in examining our assumptions about economies and markets because they sometimes operate by different rules than developed economies. As an example, Bloomberg reported today that the markets are freaking out over the firing of the finance minister:

South African markets were thrown into turmoil after President Jacob Zuma fired the finance minister, strengthening his grip on power amid differences over government spending.

The rand weakened for a sixth day in the longest streak of losses since November 2013 and bond prices dropped the most on record, pushing yields to their highest levels since July 2008. The country’s bank stocks tumbled the most in more than 14 years following the dismissal late on Wednesday of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. The cost of insuring South African debt against default rose to the highest in more than 6 1/2 years.

As the chart below shows, South African assets are indeed tanking. The top panel shows the South African ETF (EZA), which is priced in USD. The bottom panel shows the relative performance of the South African Rand relative to the Aussie Dollar, which is another commodity currency.

What's wrong with South Africa?


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