Economy

ALGIER (Capital Markets in Africa) – Imams across Algeria were instructed to warn worshippers against taking to the streets. Tell the faithful to beware of provoking the kind of conflict that’s ravaged Syria and Iraq, the government cautioned. It didn’t work. Since Friday, unprecedented protests calling on 81-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to rule himself out of elections set for April have erupted across the country. The demonstrators have been overwhelmingly peaceful — when police fired tear gas…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is looking for a way to keep the country’s main power producer from sucking the life out of the economy. Debt at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has ballooned to 419 billion ($31 billion) and it’s struggling to supply Africa’s most-industrialized nation with enough power even as it weighs on finances, with most of its borrowings guaranteed by the state. The Department of Public Enterprises says the utility…

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) has changed the outlook on the Government of Mozambique’s long-term issuer ratings to stable from negative and has affirmed the Caa3 issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings. Today’s decision primarily reflects Moody’s expectation that in the restructuring of Mozambique’s sole outstanding international bond currently under negotiation, bondholders will likely incur losses as defined by the agency consistent with a Caa3 rating. Taking into account the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Nigerians will choose a new leader in elections on Feb. 16. The economic policy divide between the candidates is the widest in the country’s 59-year history. Opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar pledges a Thatcherist liberalization of the economy, which he says will ‘make Nigeria work again’ after the 2016 recession. Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is sticking to his policy of state interventionism. He wants to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on oil exports,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian inflation decelerated in January ahead of the nation’s Feb. 16 general election. The annual inflation rate in Africa’s largest oil producer dropped to 11.37 percent, from 11.44 percent in December, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a report on its website Friday. Prices rose 0.7 percent in the month. Key Insights: Annual growth in food prices slowed to 13.5 percent from 13.6 percent in December. Spending…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Yields on benchmark German government bonds are within touching distance of zero percent for the first time in almost three years as Europe’s economic performance stalls and concerns over global trade spur investors toward havens. A no-deal Brexit, upheaval in Italian politics or a deteriorating labor market are among the risks that could turn bund yields negative, according to strategists. Sub-zero yields on 10-year bonds would mark a step…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – For all the palpitations that the trade war between the U.S. and China will knock out their economies, it is Europe that increasingly looks like the biggest threat to global growth. Industrial production across the 19-nation euro area is falling at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, and deteriorating demand is evident as the region finds itself squeezed between international and domestic drags. That leaves expansion at risk of…