In March the average prudential balanced portfolio returned 1.28% (Feb: 2.56%). Top performer is Investec (2.96%); while Namibia Asset Management (0.19%) takes the bottom spot. For the 3 month period Investec takes top spot, for the fifth consecutive month, outperforming the 'average' by roughly 3.5%. On the other end of the scale Allan Gray underperformed the 'average', for the fourth consecutive month, by 2.4%.

As the result of the strengthening of the US$ against most global currencies, the expansion of the US economy has lost some steam, expanding at only 2.2% over the third quarter of 2014, as opposed to 5% over the 3rd quarter. The following graph depicts this trend:

Source: Factsheet

Conversely, the weakening of the Euro has aided the European economy, growing at 0.9% in 2014, compared to 0.5% in 2013, despite the negative impact of sanctions imposed on Russia in the earlier part of 2014.

US inflation, another key economic indicator for the determination of the US repo rate, besides the state of the economy, shows no clear trend despite an upturn since the beginning of the year as depicted by the following graph.

Source: Factsheet

Based on these parameters, it seems that the US economy is not 'ripe' yet for an increase in the repo rate, there being neither a clear indication of a sustainable expansion of the economy nor of clear upward trend of inflation.