The Editorial Team |

Ivory Coast Economy More Than a Third Bigger After Data Overhaul

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast’s economy is more than a third bigger than previously estimated after the West African nation changed its base for measuring gross domestic product. The country’s GDP at current prices measured 27.1 trillion CFA francs ($46 billion) in 2015, government spokesman Sidi Toure said in an emailed statement. That’s 38% bigger than the 19.6 trillion francs-estimate of the previous 1996 base. The statement didn’t give updated figures for…

Here’s What Investors Say About Trump’s Shock Virus Plan

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A combination of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented travel restrictions between the U.S. and Europe and underwhelming stimulus measures sparked a fresh exodus from risk assets in global financial markets Thursday. The rush to gauge the impact on the global economy and corporate earnings, a sense of disappointment at the lack of detail in the U.S. stimulus package and an impression that Washington has fallen behind the curve in its…

Emerging-Market Stocks Sink Most Since ‘08 as Virus Wreaks Havoc

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Emerging-market equities posted their worst daily decline since November 2008 as traders shunned all but the safest securities on concern U.S. measures to stem the gathering pace of the coronavirus outbreak aren’t robust enough. Currencies weakened and sovereign bond spreads widened. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of equities fell 6.6% Stock benchmarks from Brazil to Poland and Thailand tumbled more than 10% A measure of currencies dropped by the most in almost four…

Oil Crash Is a Double-Edged Sword for LNG With Projects at Risk

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Oil’s rout may have been an unexpected boon for the biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas, but its knock-on effects may come back to bite. That’s because more than a dozen proposed LNG export projects from the U.S. to Mozambique are at risk of being delayed or scrapped as crude careened to levels that make most of them unprofitable. If fewer of them come to fruition, that would ease…

Kenyan Treasury Opposes Plan to Securitize Pending Bills

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s Treasury opposed a plan by lawmakers in East Africa’s biggest economy to securitize the country’s stock of pending bills for supplies and services rendered, saying it will only inflate debt costs. Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani said the proposal to convert all pending bills of more than 500 million shillings ($4.88 million) into long-term instruments was “a weird idea.” In the fiscal year through June 2019 the state owed suppliers 190…

South Africa Urges Overhaul of Top Fund Manager After Report

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A judicial inquiry in South Africa recommended sweeping changes to laws governing Africa’s biggest fund manager after it found senior management, including former Chief Executive Officer Dan Matjila, flouted internal procedures. The investigation, led by retired Judge Lex Mpati, concluded there had been “substantial impropriety” at the state-owned Public Investment Corp., which manages 2.13 trillion rand ($130 billion) of state-employee pension funds. It found that the board had acted as a…

South Africa Is Spoiling It For Banks Finding Growth Elsewhere

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s biggest banks are increasingly relying on the rest of the continent to make money as an economic recovery at home ebbs ever further away. The Big Four make the bulk of their profit in Africa’s most industrialized country, where power shortages, incoherent government policies, corruption and ailing state-owned companies have drained the fiscus and resulted in two recessions in as many years. None of the top bankers…

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