The Editorial Team |

Nigeria holds rates at 13 pct, worried by economic growth outlook

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 13 percent as expected on Tuesday, saying tight monetary policy should offset the inflationary effects of elevated spending ahead of a March 28 election. Governor Godwin Emefiele said the Monetary Policy Committee was also satisfied with the bank’s attempts to stabilise the naira, which has come under major pressure in the last six months due to the collapse in oil prices. The…

Zimbabwe seeks Berlin talks to resolve $739 mln debt it owes Germany

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HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is planning talks with Germany on how to resolve a $739 million debt it owes to euro zone’s biggest economy, the southern African nation’s finance minister said on Tuesday. President Robert Mugabe’s government owes foreign creditors, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, $9 billion and is intensifying efforts to have the debt cancelled or rescheduled to allow it to access new loans. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Harare wanted…

Mid-size firms shy away from Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bourses

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Policy makers in Kenya and Tanzania are looking for ways to attract small and medium sized enterprises to the capital markets to increase their access to cheaper capital according to the East African. 2 years after the launch of the GEMS, the Nairobi bourse has only attracted four companies to the platform whilst the Dar es Salaam stock market has only attracted two. This follows a lukewarm performance at the alternative trading platforms for SMEs on…

South Africa’s rand rides on euro gains versus dollar

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand steadied versus the dollar after pushing firmer than the 12.00 mark overnight, helped by a stronger euro after the Federal Reserve signalled last week that U.S. rates would rise very gradually. A less aggressive than expected policy tightening cycle by the Fed would boost high-yielding emerging currencies such as the rand, even as South Africa’s own central bank is expected to keep its key repo rate unchanged on Thursday….

Japan tops project finance investment into the continent…

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Over the last 10 years, the level of project finance investments sponsored by Asian funds in Africa has increased by over 160%, with the amount of fresh capital poured into the continents’ projects such as roads, water sanitation plants and oil and gas pipelines in 2014 alone standing at USD 4.2bn, according to research by global law firm Linklaters. The surge, especially in the last five years, is perhaps surprisingly attributable to Japanese investors, who…

South Africa’s rand steadies, market awaits MPC

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand was largely steady on Monday, with direction likely to be driven by global market moves as investors speculate on the timing of policy tightening in the United States. On the domestic front, market players anticipated few ripples from the South African Reserve Bank’s interest rate decision on Thursday, where the benchmark repo rate will likely stay unchanged at 5.75 percent. At 0631 GMT, the rand was just 0.16 percent…

Egyptian pound steady on official market, weaker on black market

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s central bank kept the pound steady at 7.53 pounds to the dollar at a foreign exchange auction on Sunday, while the domestic currency weakened on the black market. The central bank has now kept the official exchange rate steady for more than a month after letting the pound weaken in an attempt to wipe out black-market trading. The bank said it had offered $40 million at auction and sold $38.4 million…

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