Old Mutual earnings down 5%

Insurance firm, Old Mutual registered a 5% drop in earnings in 2019.

The company said its operations was weighed down by a stuttering South African economy.

South Africa’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in a decade in 2019 as business and consumer confidence plunged amid a shortage of electricity and shrinking disposable incomes.

Old Mutual is also having to contend with hyperinflation and the worst economic crisis in Zimbabwe in a decade.

Adjusted earnings per share before one-time items will probably increase 4%-9% for the 12 months through December 2019, buoyed by higher returns on investments, Old Mutual said in a statement.

Old Mutual operates a subsidiary in Ghana.