Share investing in South Africa under Donald Trump

Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) dropped suddenly today on the announcement by Donald Trump that he would be suspending all aid to South Africa.

Since aid flows are fortunately relatively small compared to government expenditure and GDP, that move is not particularly significant on its own. The bigger concern expressed by various commentators is that this could be a harbinger of future actions such as tariffs and sanctions. I am fairly confident that is not the case. The reason? Political economy considerations of course…