Author: The Editorial Team

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s the biggest pile of debt in the world — the $15.9 trillionU.S. Treasuries market. It’s been built with the help of foreign central banks and investors, who have clamored to buy U.S. government bonds through good times and bad. But what happens if their appetite wanes? Both China and Japan — the biggest foreign owners of Treasuries — have pared their holdings from the record levels of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is a much more important country than most people in the U.S. probably realize. With more than 190 million people, it’s Africa’s largest country by far (Ethiopia, the second-largest, has a little more than half as many). And with a fertility rate of about 5.5 children per woman, among the world’s highest, Nigeria is only going to grow in importance — by the century’s end, the country is projected to…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) -A plan to build Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine at a cost of about $4 billion is floundering because a military stake in the project has deterred potential backers, according to people familiar with the funding discussions. The African Export-Import Bank has the mandate to raise money for the mine, a joint venture between Russian and Zimbabwean investors. While the bank provided $192 million of its own funds, meetings in the past year…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – For more than a year, Apple Inc. avoided major damage from the U.S. trade war with China, thanks in part to a White House charm offensive by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. But the company now faces its first major hit — from both sides of the dispute. A new round of tariffs proposed by the U.S. on Monday includes mobile phones, meaning the iPhone, Apple’s most important product that is…