Economy | - Part 82

Gabon’s Ba3 rating balances wealth and sound public finances with risks stemming from low oil prices

Gabon’s Ba3 rating is supported by its oil- wealth, relatively sound public finances and membership of the Franc Zone, Moody’s Investors Service says in its latest Credit Analysis for the country published recently. However, a relatively undiversified economy and the government’s reliance on oil-derived revenue are among the factors which constrain its rating. “The key challenge for Gabon’s government is to stick to its plan to diversify the economy, while maintaining sound public finances at…

Nigeria: Legislators approve 2015 ‘s Appropriation Bill

Posted on by The Editorial Team

A week after the House of Representatives passed the 2015 Budget, the Upper Chamber fulfilled its part of the Appropriation process by passing a N4.5tn budget. This is N134.4bn in excess of the N4.4tn submitted by the Executive arm late 2014. Meanwhile, recurrent expenditure was reduced slightly by N0.5bn to N2.6tn while capital expenditure was scaled down by additional N85.9bn to N557.0bn from N642.8bn proposed by the Executive arm. Effectively, this implies that recurrent expenditure…

Chad to receive $1.1 billion debt relief – finance minister

Posted on by The Editorial Team

DAKAR, April 28 (Reuters) – Chad will receive $1.1 billion in debt relief after completion of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), its finance minister said on Tuesday. Kordje Bedoumra said in an interview that the oil-producing central African nation – one of the poorest countries on earth – had cut its growth forecast for this year to 5 percent, from 7 percent in 2014,…

Nigeria’s oil revenue drops by NGN 265bn

Posted on by The Editorial Team

The slump in the global price of crude oil has resulted in a drop of NGN 265.28bn in the revenue generated by Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2014 when compared to what the country garnered in the preceding quarter of 2014 according to Punch Newspaper, Nigeria. Oil prices fell from over USD 100 per barrel in early 2014 to as low as USD 40 per barrel by December 2014. Over 70% of the Nigerian…

Africa to add more to workforce in 2035 than world combined

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Growth in SSA should remain robust but decelerate in the wake of the decline in oil and commodity prices. This is according to the IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa which projects that the region’s economy is set to register another year of solid performance, by expanding at 4.5% in 2015. While this rate will be at the lower end of the range experienced over the last few years, SSA will remain among…

Continued Weakness in Commodity Markets May Signal Long Term Easing of Prices

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Well-supplied markets are continuing to drive down prices of commodities, across the board, says the latest issue of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook (CMO), released today. Most indices edged further down during the first quarter of 2015, with food down 7.3 percent, crude oil down 13 percent and metals down 9 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. Prices are expected to stay weak for the rest of this year, with only a…

African Inflation Snapshot: March 2015

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Angola’s inflation rises to 7.87 percent: Angola’s consumer inflation edged up to 7.87 percent year-on-year in March from 7.73 percent in February, according to data from the statistics office. On a month-on-month basis, prices rose 0.63 percent after a 0.76 percent increase previously. Botswana’s CPI remains unchanged at 2.8 percent: Botswana’s consumer inflation was steady at 2.8 percent year-on-year in March from the previous month, according to data from the statistics office. Whereas inflation increased…

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