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Friday, September 4, 2009.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Rosalia Matlou.
Making headlines today:
The public hearings for the second phase of the renewable energy feed-intariff (Refit) took place at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa's (Nersa's) office in Pretoria on Thursday, with 19 participants from industry lined up to make presentations to the Nersa panel.
Nersa hearings chairperson Thembani Bukula reports that over 72 written comments were submitted to the regulator after it released the draft Refit for comment in July.
In the draft consultation paper, a qualifying renewable energy generator under phase two of the Refit would be defined as a new investment in electricity generation using the following technologies: concentrated solar power plant without storage; solid biomass; biogas; solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, large ground or roof-mounted panel systems; concentrating PV; concentrated solar power central tower.
The Refit programme hopes to put South Africa on the map as an African leader in renewable energy technology.
The deficit on South Africa's current account narrowed to its lowest level in more than five years in the second quarter of 2009 as recession kept imports down, easing pressure on the trade balance, the central bank said on Thursday.
The bank said in its September quarterly bulletin that the shortfall narrowed to 3,2% of gross domestic product (GDP) - the lowest it has been since the first quarter of 2004 - from 7% in the first quarter of the year.
The second-quarter deficit amounted to R73,1-billion compared with a R163,7-billion gap in the first quarter.
Economists polled by Reuters last week forecast a current account gap of 4,8% of GDP.
An upturn in investor sentiment towards emerging-market assets lifted foreign portfolio investment inflows to R29-billion in the second quarter, from R10,1-billion in the previous quarter.
It was reported that subdued domestic demand and weak business and consumer confidence levels led to the third consecutive quarterly decline in the volume of merchandise imports, which fell by 15,5% in the second quarter.
Also making headlines:
Business confidence unchanged as economy battles to gain momentum.
Mondi starts up new paper machine in Poland.
Eskom suspends Medium Term Power Purchase Programme procurement process.
And, government officials acknowledge there is a municipality maintenance problem.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.
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