Category: INTERNATIONAL
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South Africa’s rand rally reduces some risk to inflation: central bank
The rand’s recent rally reduces some risk to the inflation outlook, South Africa’s central bank deputy governor said on Thursday, but he was unsure how long its strength would last. The rand hit 10-month highs against the U.S. dollar this week, as investors bought into higher yielding assets on expectations that interest rates in G7…
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Kenya central bank to set rates at policy meeting on Sept 20
The Central Bank of Kenya said on Friday its Monetary Policy Committee will meet on Sep. 20 to set its benchmark lending rate. At its last meeting in July, the bank held its lending rate at 10.5 percent, saying recent increases in fuel taxes would temporarily put upward pressure on inflation. – Credit: CNBC Africa
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Egypt’s Central Bank Keeps Pound Stable At Regular Forex Auction
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) kept the pound stable at 8.78 per dollar at its weekly foreign exchange auction on Tuesday, the state-owned MENA reported. The CBE devalued the pound by about 14 per cent to reach EGP 8.78 against the dollar in March in an effort to close the gap between the official…
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Kenya:Banks may get core capital reprieve in new CBK rule
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has put forward a new guideline to strengthen commercial banks without having to raise capitalisation to the Sh5 billion proposed by the National Treasury in the latest Budget. While the CBK does not propose a particular capital figure, the guideline implies banks that do not have enough free cash…
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Kenya:National Bank’s bad loans quadruple to Sh27.3 billion
Bad loans at National Bank of Kenya more than quadrupled to Sh27.3 billion in the half year ended June, contributing to an 82 per cent drop in net profit in the period. The lender’s net profit in the period stood at Sh311.2 million compared to Sh1.7 billion the year before. This came as provisions for…
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Uganda cuts interest rates again as inflationary pressures ease
Uganda’s central bank cut interest rates on Monday, saying a stable shilling had dampened inflation as it faced calls to also bring down debt auction yields to help the monetary easing feed through to the broader economy. Making its third cut since April and signalling further reductions ahead, the central Bank of Uganda (BoU) lowered…
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Egypt’s Urban Consumer Inflation Unchanged At 14.8 Pct in July – State Statistics Agency
Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation rate was steady at 14.8 per cent in July, unchanged from the previous month, state statistics agency said on Wednesday. The general index of consumer prices pointed to an 0.7 per cent increase in July compared to June, according to the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS)…
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Cash-starved Burundi reports stronger inflow from domestic taxes
Tax revenues in Burundi rose by almost 13 percent last month compared with a year ago, official data showed on Monday, a boost for the economy following a year of unrest linked to the re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. More than 450 people have been killed in violence and more than a quarter of a…
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South Africa’s utility suspends managers over nuclear documents leak
South Africa’s state-run power utility Eskom said on Wednesday it had suspended two senior managers as part of an investigation into the leaking of documents in a court case involving Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power plant. The station and plant managers at Koeberg were temporarily suspended for allegedly distributing documents containing information relating to Koeberg’s…
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Northeast Nigerian farmers need urgent help
Farmers in Nigeria’s crisis-hit northeast urgently need help to start growing crops again, the U.N. food agency said on Tuesday, warning that a failure to get people back on their feet could open the door to radicalisation. An insurgency by Boko Haram militants in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states disrupted fishing, farming, cattle breeding and…