Category: INTERNATIONAL
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South Africa: Inflation outlook gives Kganyago room to help growth
Falling inflation expectations may have come at the perfect time for South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) governor Lesetja Kganyago, who is caught in a rate-increase cycle at a time when ratings companies have told the country to boost growth or have its credit rating cut to junk. The five-year breakeven rate, a measure of bond…
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Kenya: CBK officers accused of blocking Imperial Bank revival efforts
Imperial Bank directors have claimed that senior Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) officials who were complicit in fraudulent transactions that led to the collapse of the lender are now an obstacle to its re-structuring and revival. The directors Tuesday told Parliament that CBK officers are obstructing effective investigations into fraud that precipitated the collapse of…
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South Africa:Plunging business sentiment points to South African recession
South Africa’s economy looked set on Tuesday for its first quarterly contraction in a year after measures of business sentiment tumbled, dragged down by shrinking consumer spending that has sunk hopes of a retail-led recovery. Rising inflation due to severe drought and a weakening currency have triggered a steep rise in lending rates over the…
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Kenya: Major Power Blackout As Key Hydro Station Fails
Many parts of the country were plunged into darkness on Tuesday following a power-generation hitch at the country’s biggest hydro-electricity station. Kenya Power said the Gitaru hydro station, which has a capacity of 225 megawatts (MW), suffered a technical hitch that affected electricity generation. “At 11.30am, a loss of generation at [the] Gitaru hydro station…
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Tanzania’s Bank M to cross-list on Dar, Nairobi stock markets
Bank M of Tanzania, set to enter the Kenyan market this month, is seeking to list at the Dar es Salaam Securities Exchange (DSE) by end-year and later cross-list at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. It will become the first Tanzanian lender to enter the Kenyan market after 73 per cent of its shareholders under the…
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Kenya:Auditor says Sh1.9bn lost in NYS scam
Kenyan taxpayers lost Sh1.9 billion in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal, Auditor-General Edward Ouko says in a new report that identifies businesswoman Josephine Kabura as the principal beneficiary of the theft. The report says Ms Kabura received Sh1.3 billion on account of 11 companies that did business with the NYS and was to receive…
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Nigeria: Govt Urged to Evolve Post-Oil Economic Blueprint
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said that the significant drop in oil pricing necessitate an alternative economic blueprint not dependent on oil. The Executive Director of the organisation, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, who said this today in Abuja at a briefing added that ethnic and political colouration given environmental challenges,…
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Nigeria to talk with Delta Avengers: oil minister
Nigeria will talk with the Niger Delta Avengers militant group which has claimed a string of attacks that cut crude output sharply, its oil minister said. The southern Delta swamps, where many complain of poverty and oil spills, have been hit by militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria’s oil output…
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South Africa: JSE ready for shorter settlement cycle
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) will start its shorter settlement cycle on July 11 2016, it announced on Tuesday. This is after the final market testing phase of the project has been successfully completed. Tyrone Arendse, head of change delivery in the post trade and information services division at the JSE, told Fin24 that clearing…
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South Africa: All eyes on GDP and ratings agency Fitch
Economists expect a negative GDP reading for the first quarter of 2016, while ratings agency Fitch should follow Moody’s and Standard Poor’s and not downgrade SA to junk status. Many economists expect a negative gross domestic product (GDP) reading when Statistics SA announces the figures for the first quarter of 2016 on Wednesday. Expectations are…