This paper examined the pro…tability and …nancial sustainability of Saving and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) in Tanzania. The data set used in this study came from SACCOs' audited …nancial reports for the year 2011. Pro…tability was estimated using return on assets and …nan-cial sustainability was estimated using the ratio of total expenses to total revenue. Linear regression was used to investigate the determinants of …nancial sustainability. The results show that about 61% of our sample SACCOs are operationally sustainable and 51% of the total sample is both operationally and …nancially sustainable. The average sustainability score was 127%. On average, our results for pro…tability (measured by return on assets) are higher than some of the results reported for standard micro…-nance both in the region and globally. In terms of sustainability our results suggest a promising future for the …nancial cooperative business model as an alternative form of …nancing the poor. This study contributes in two ways. First it contributes towards the scanty empirical literature on the performance of saving and credit cooperatives in developing countries and Tanzania in particular. Second, it provides provocative evidences which appear to contradict earlier and more pessimistic accounts on members based micro…nance. It challenges the existing ontology about the potential of extending member-based micro…nance. We acknowledge that only SACCOs with audited …nancial statements were included in our study, thus the conclusion is limited to SACCOs with similar characteristics. Future work might consider extending the analysis to include SACCOs with non-audited …nancial statements.

This paper examines the magnitude and speed of exchange rate pass-through to import prices in South Africa. It further explores whether the direction and size of changes in the exchange rate have di¤erent pass-through e¤ects on import prices, that is, whether the exchange rate pass-through is symmetric or asymmetric. The …ndings of the study suggest that ERPT in South Africa is incomplete but relatively high. Furthermore, ERPT is found to be higher in periods of rand depreciation than appreciation, which supports the binding quantity constraint theory. There is also evidence to suggest that pass-through is slightly higher in periods of small changes than large changes in the exchange rate in harmony with the menu cost theory when the invoices are denominated in the exporters'currency.

The financial sector plays a critical role in economic growth and economic development (Beck & Levine 2004; Levine 1998). However, the impact of the financial sector on economic growth is realized if the sector is efficiently managed and well monitored. The corollary to this is that if the financial sector is not effectively monitored and regulated it may lead to economic crisis. As argued by Sufian (2011) the health of the financial sector is critical for the health of the economy at large. Given the relationship between the financial sector development and economic growth, knowledge about the efficiency of financial institutions and the underlying factors that influence efficiency is crucial. Such knowledge is necessary to provide insights for managers, regulators, policy makers and other stakeholders to formulate policies to improve the efficiency of the financial sector. Despite the importance of knowledge on health industry as articulated above, there is paucity of empirical literature on the performance of financial cooperatives in developing countries and Tanzania in particular. Thus, the objective of this paper is to empirically analyze the efficiency of Tanzanian Saving and Credit Cooperatives. Efficiency analysis was decomposed into three dimensions to explore possible sources of inefficiency. The first dimension was technical efficiency, which explored the overall effectiveness of transforming the productive inputs into desired outputs compared to the data-driven frontier of best practice. The second dimension was pure technical efficiency, which captured managerial efficiency in the intermediation process. The third dimension was scale efficiency, which explored whether firms were operating in an optimal scale of operation. The study used a sample of 103 audited financial statements during 2011. Data envelopment analysis was employed to explore the efficiency scores. The results show that average scores are 42%, 52% and 76% for technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies respectively. Since most of the inefficiencies are either technical or scale in nature, the study recommends increasing the operating scale for smaller firms. Firms operating beyond the optimal scale may need to downsize. Also the managers from technically inefficient firms should reduce the wastage of the productive resources by utilizing their inputs more efficiently.

The paper uses the standard probit model proposed by Estrella and Mishkin (1996) , as well as the modified probit model suggested by Dueker (1997) , to examine the ability of the yield curve to predict recessions in South Africa, and compares its predictive power with other commonly used variables such as the growth rate of real money supply, changes in stock prices and the index of leading economic indicators. Compared with other indicators, real M3 growth does not provide much information about future recessions, whilst movements in the All-Share index provide information for up to 12 months but do not do better than the yield curve. The index of leading economic indicators outperforms the yield spread in the short run up to 4 months but the yield spread performs better at longer horizons. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) Economic Society of South Africa 2007.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the speed and magnitude of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to consumer prices in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The Johansen Maximum Likelihood approach is employed in the estimation of different models of symmetric and asymmetric ERPT. Specifically asymmetric ERPT models with respect to the direction and size of exchange rate changes are estimated. Findings Results reveal that even though a depreciation in the nominal effective exchange rate will lead to an increase of consumer prices in the long-run, it is not statistically significant. Evidence also suggests a significant asymmetry with respect to direction and size of exchange rate changes. This indicates that the right ERPT model is an asymmetric model. Specifically ERPT is found to be incomplete but relatively higher in periods of depreciation than in periods of appreciation; that is 53 percent against 3 percent. ERPT is also higher during episodes of large changes (about 51 percent). Research limitations/implications It would have been interesting to analyze the impact on consumer prices through changes in import prices. That approach was not adopted due to lack of consistent data on import prices in Ghana. Practical implications It is imperative that the monetary authorities critically monitor exchange rate movements in order to be able to take swift policy action so as to counteract any inflationary pressures from the external sector. In particular, much attention should be paid to events and arrangements that could result in large depreciation of the exchange rate. Originality/value While previous studies have assumed a symmetric ERPT model for Ghana, this paper is unique in that it investigates the most appropriate model for examining ERPT in Ghana whether symmetric or an asymmetric.