Economy

TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tunisia is readying for the next installment of its International Monetary Fund loan after months of delay, a sorely needed cash injection for a North African nation whose government is struggling to cut costs, curb inflation and boost economic growth. The tranche of around $250 million, part of the $2.9 billion loan Tunisia secured in 2016, is expected to be paid out after the fund conducts its sixth review…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s slower economic growth in 2018 beat the International Monetary Fund’s forecast, and may set the scene for the West African economy to expand the fastest in the world this year, as the lender predicted last week. Gross domestic product expanded 6.3 percent last year, Samuel Kobina Annim, government statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service, told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Accra. While it was slower than 2017’s growth of 8.1…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s inflation rate hovered above 11 percent in March as growth in food prices accelerated. Consumer prices in Africa’s largest oil producer rose 11.3 percent from a year earlier, matching the rate in March, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a report published on its website Tuesday. Key Insights Price risks could elevate in the first half due to a 67 percent increase in the national minimum…

Badly needed economic reforms will only succeed with democratic support. KHARTOUM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Half a century since juntas were the rage, generals in the three largest North African countries are trying to bring them back into fashion. In Algeria and Sudan, where popular protests have recently toppled long-reigning tyrants, military cabals are re-emerging from the shadows to bid for power. In Libya, eight unstable years since the fall of a dictator, another aspiring caudillo is trying…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – A prolonged dry spell in Kenya has delayed planting of crops in the East African country, increasing inflationary pressures from higher food prices. “Late onset of the 2019 long rains and prevailing dry conditions affected the early planted crop,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement on its website. The resultant shortage of food in some areas caused prices of corn, beans and wheat to increase slightly, the…

TUNIS (Capital Markets in AfricaA) – Tunisia may have to wait a little longer for a much-anticipated IMF loan installment, as the Washington-based lender said the North African nation needs more time “to fully flesh out” its economic policy. The statement, released by the International Monetary Fund at the end of a staff visit to Tunisia, underscores how the nation’s ongoing political bickering is taking its toll on the implementation of broader economic measures, such as curbing…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The tension created by high levels of inequality in South Africa increases political risk and hampers the progress of economic reforms, Moody’s Investors Service said. Joblessness among young people in Africa’s most-industrialized economy that’s at more than 50 percent and slow economic growth “are key credit challenges,” the ratings company said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. While President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged reforms to boost the economy and lure investors,…