The Editorial Team |

Ghana’s Finance Chief Warns Years of Discipline Undone by Virus

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ghana’s budget deficit for 2020 will swell to more than double the legal limit because of the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, undoing years of fiscal consolidation that was supposed to mark the end of persistent financial bailouts. The fiscal gap is forecast to widen beyond 10% of gross domestic product from an adjusted outlook in March of 7.8% of GDP, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said in…

INTO AFRICA May-June 2020 Edition – COVID-19 Pandemic: Africa’s Share

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Welcome to the May/June 2020 edition of INTO AFRICA, a publication written by the professionals, for professionals, investors, policymakers … We Advance and provide fresh insights into Africa’s emerging markets through renowned thought leadership and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. This edition is titled: COVID-19 Pandemic: Africa’s Share. The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. The disease that…

Commodities Outlook: Oil Price average $40 p/b in 2020

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – ICE Brent crude oil front-month prices averaged $42.2 p/b in the first half of 2020, constituting a drop of 32.2% from an average of $62.3 p/b in the second half of 2019. The decline in prices was due to the spread of the coronavirus that led to the enforcement of lockdown measures worldwide, which reduced global demand for oil. Also, prices averaged $33.5 p/b in the second quarter of…

Africa: Limited impact of debt relief from China

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Chartered Bank indicated that Sub-Saharan African(SSA) countries will benefit from debt-service relief from China under the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative. It expected the agreement to suspend the repayment of bilateral loans for low-income economies until the end of 2020. It considered that Angola, Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya will benefit the most from the suspension of debt payments to China, as they owe a large position of their…

Sanctioned Billionaire Finds a Haven in Tiny Congolese Bank

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KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) — A year ago in June, a group of bankers marched into a U.S. Treasury office in Washington on perhaps the most important mission of their careers: to save a country from financial collapse. Among them was Willy Mulamba, Citigroup Inc.’s top executive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a resource-rich but devastatingly poor nation in central Africa. Mulamba, a 51-year-old Congolese banker who had returned home after years abroad,…

Who Will Lead the WTO and Help It Avoid Collapse?: QuickTake

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The campaign to lead the World Trade Organization during the most turbulent period of its 25-year existence has officially begun. Playing out against the backdrop of a pandemic, a worldwide recession, the U.S.-China battle for trade supremacy, and the American presidential election, there couldn’t be more at stake. But Brazilian Director-General Roberto Azevedo’s decision to step down at the end of August, a year before his term ends, also…

Paris Club Debt Delays Reach $1.3 Billion For 18 Countries

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Paris Club has waived $1.3 billion in debt payments for 18 of the world’s poorest countries to help them free up resources to battle the coronavirus pandemic. So far, 32 of the 73 countries eligible for relief have requested a suspension of payments until the end of the year, the club, an informal grouping of 22 country lenders, said Tuesday in a statement. The suspension is part of…

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