Breaking News Today – Thursday 14 August 2025

Business & Tech News 

Xiaomi Auto to Launch EV’s in South Africa

Xiaomi Auto, the off-shoot company of Chinese mobile tech group, now diversified into electric cars in recent years, has announced it plans to launch its EV flagship vehicle, the SU7 Ultra in South Africa. The company currently only sells its vehicles in the local Chinese market, but has plans for further market expansion. Xiaomi set a target of delivering 300,000 SU7 vehicles by the end of 2025, and as of February 2025, sales data indicates strong performance, with 186,112 units sold in China from April 2024 to February 2025, outpacing Tesla’s Model 3 in the same period.

Given the pace and Xiaomi’s goal, they are likely on track or close to making their 300,000 target for the year, though exact numbers for the full year are not yet confirmed. While the Xiaomi SU7 is currently sold only in China. Xiaomi has expressed plans to expand into Europe in 2025, but as of the latest data, no sales have been reported outside of China

Bitcoin Surges to a Fresh High

Bitcoin rose above $123,000 on yesterday and has also hit $124,000 in early trade this morning, spiking to a new record high, fuelled by rising institutional adoption and expectations of monetary easing and newly introduced crypto regulation policy in the US. The executive order issued by US President Donald Trump, last week opened the door for including crypto assets in 401(k) retirement plans, signaling a more supportive regulatory stance in the US. At the same time, bets on the Federal Reserve resuming interest rate cuts have grown, as the latest US CPI report eased concerns over tariff-driven inflation, while signs of a cooling labor market increased the scope for policy easing. Markets are nearly certain of a 25 bps cut in September, with some anticipating a larger 50 bps move.

Further boosting Bitcoin’s rally were sustained inflows into spot exchange-traded funds and purchases by public companies following the example of software firm-turned-bitcoin heavyweight MicroStrategy. Since the start of the year, Bitcoin has now gained around 32% and up by almost 5% this week alone..

South African Retail Sales indicates Moderate Growth in June

South Africa’s retail sales rose by 1.6% year-on-year in June 2025, moderating from a 4.3% surge in the prior month. Sales moderated for textiles, clothing, footwear, and leather goods (4.6% vs 12.6% in May) and other retailers (2.3% vs 3%), while declining for food, beverages, and tobacco (-4.5% vs -2.4%) and general dealers (-0.2% vs 3.4%). Meanwhile, faster increases were seen for household furniture, appliances and equipment (6.9% vs 6.8%); pharmaceuticals and medical goods, cosmetics and toiletries (4.2% vs 1.7%) and hardware, paint and glass (5.4% vs 1.8%). On a monthly basis, retail sales were flat, after increasing by 0.2% in the prior month. Retail trade sales advanced by 3.7% in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the second quarter of 2024.

Business, Tech & Market News Shorts: 

• South African Banking group Nedbank has purchased Durban-based payment specialist fintech iKhoka, for R1.65-billion in an all-cash deal. iKhokha was co-founded by Matt Putman, Ramsay Daly and Clive Putman. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to conclude this year.
• Digital Asset operator Bullish, owner of crypto exchange Coindesk, has raised $1.1 billion in an initial public offering yesterday, pricing its shares above the marketed price range of $32-$33. The company sold 30 million shares at a price of $37, giving the company a market value of around $5.4 billion. 
• xAI Co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has announced his departure from the company yesterday in a post on X. Babuschkin led engineering teams at xAI and helped build the startup into one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI model developers. He plans to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures.
• South African trade minister, Parks Tau, said yesterday, that low domestic sales of locally made cars, plus an influx of cheap imports with low levels of local content manufacturing, have led to 12 company closures and over 4,000 job losses in the South African motor industry over two years.
• Kenyan lender KCB Group’s first-half pretax profit rose 7%, helped by higher interest income, the bank which also operates in Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Burundi, said first-half pretax profit jumped to 40.83 billion shillings ($317 million) from 38.11 billion shillings in the same period of 2024.Net interest income rose to 69.1 billion shillings from 61.3 billion shillings.

Markets by Numbers 

Currencies: 

Currency markets today indicate the US Dollar is currently trading softer against the Euro at 1.17006 and against the Pound at 1.35700 The Yen is currently trading at 146.51 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR)is currently at R17.54 to the US dollar.

Commodities:

• Gold futures prices are currently trading marginally higher this morning, and currently at $3359.26 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trading lower today, with prices currently at $4.4807
• Silver futures prices are trading flat today, and currently at $38.513
• Platinum futures are trading -0.55% lower this morning, and are currently trading at $1330.70 While Palladium prices are marginally lower this morning and currently at $1126
• Brent crude oil prices are currently at $65.78, with WTI trading at $62.80 
• Cocoa futures are trading more than 2% lower today, and currently at $8595 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are up by over 1,4%, and are currently trading at $319.16

Crypto Currencies:

• Bitcoin prices are currently at $122843 after hitting a new all time high earlier today.
• Ether prices are currently at $4745.75 
• $Trumpcoin is currently more than 5% higher today and trading around $9.83

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H30 Central African Time) 

Other Breaking News in Africa Today

Cape Verde Struck by Deadly Flooding

Cape Verde has declared a state of emergency on the islands of São Vicente and Santo Antão, after deadly floods which killed at least nine people and forced 1,500 from their homes according to a BBC report. The state of emergency activates crisis funds and urgent infrastructure repairs in the Atlantic Ocean islands off the west coast of Africa.Monday’s flash floods were triggered by Tropical Storm Erin, leading to 193mm (7.6in) of rain in just five hours, far above São Vicente’s annual average. Rescue teams are desperately searching for missing people, while roads, homes and vehicles have been severely damaged. Commenting on the heavy rains, Ester Brito from the country’s meteorology institute stated that the weather conditions were uncommon. “It is a rare situation because what was recorded is above our 30-year climatologist average.”