Another Donald Trump Foreign Policy Foray Goes Awry

Another Donald Trump Foreign Policy Foray Goes Awry

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Donald Trump’s biggest foray into African affairs has not turned out well. The U.S. president’s bid to resolve a long-running dispute over a Nile dam has failed to make a breakthrough, joining his unsuccessful efforts in crises from North Korea to Kosovo. In the case of the Nile, he’s largely fallen afoul of the same intractable regional politics that have bedeviled African leaders for years in their own fruitless…

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Kenya Plans Foreign Flights from August in Phased Reopening

Kenya Plans Foreign Flights from August in Phased Reopening

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) — Kenya announced a resumption in international flights from Aug. 1 and lifted a ban on travel into its two biggest cities, saying the East African nation’s counties have reached a “reasonable level of preparedness” to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel into and out of the capital, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Mandera will resume from 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised speech. Domestic air travel will…

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Lower Policy Rate Helps Rich, Not Poor, SARB Researchers Say

Lower Policy Rate Helps Rich, Not Poor, SARB Researchers Say

SOUTH AFRICA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The South African Reserve Bank is powerless when it comes to alleviating debt-service costs for the poorest 80% of the country’s people, researchers at the Pretoria-based central bank concluded. Reductions in the repurchase rate generally lead to lower borrowing costs for the richest 20%, but they’re negatively correlated with lending rates for the rest, economists Kerschyl Singh and David Fowkes wrote in a research paper published on the…

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Time to Get Picky as Emerging-Market Traders Question Rally

Time to Get Picky as Emerging-Market Traders Question Rally

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Emerging-market investors are getting selective even after bonds, stocks, and currencies kicked off the second half of the year on a high note. Money managers are questioning whether the developing world’s economic troubles will be short-lived as massive central-bank stimulus bolsters demand for risky assets. Emerging-market dollar bonds posted their longest weekly winning streak since February in the five days through Friday. Stocks and currencies rallied on Monday. Inflation data in at least 10 developing…

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World Bank to Seed Ghana’s Development Lender With $250 Million

World Bank to Seed Ghana’s Development Lender With $250 Million

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The World Bank will provide Ghana with a $250 million credit facility to start its own development bank. The Washington-based lender is finalizing the terms of the funding with the country’s Ministry of Finance, the World Bank’s office in the nation’s capital, Accra, said in an email on Monday. The World Bank’s board may consider the facility before September, it said. Ghana’s government said in October that it plans to raise…

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Shares used by many wealthy Zimbabweans as an inflation hedge

Shares used by many wealthy Zimbabweans as an inflation hedge

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) — When Zimbabwe suspended trading on its stock exchange last week, James Hove was left with no access to the funds he needs to conduct his business. Like many wealthy Zimbabweans, Hove invests in the local stock market. Not for the value, he sees in the companies whose stocks trade on it, but as a hedge against surging consumer prices while annual inflation is running at 786%, the benchmark Zimbabwe…

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Nigerian Presidency Summons Anti-Graft Chief Over Asset Sales

Nigerian Presidency Summons Anti-Graft Chief Over Asset Sales

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s presidency summoned the head of the nation’s anti-corruption body to discuss the sale of seized assets. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu attended the meeting after receiving an invitation from a presidential panel while en route to another meeting, the agency said Monday in an emailed statement. It denied a report by the online newspaper The Cable that Magu had been arrested. “The EFCC’s boss…

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