The Editorial Team

Pay Debt or Feed People Is Hungry Nations’ Impossible Choice

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – After Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt, Jack McIntyre, a portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, started watching rice and grain prices more closely. For a swath of the markets he’s tracking, global food shortages are presenting governments with a stark choice — pay their debts or feed their people. Sri Lanka opted for the latter, falling into arrears on its foreign debt May 18 amid a lack of dollars to ease…

Kenya Surprises With First Rate Hike in Almost Seven Years

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s central bank unexpectedly raised its key interest rate for the first time in almost seven years to anchor inflation expectations as concerns about commodity prices build. The monetary policy committee increased the rate by 50 basis points to 7.5%, Governor Patrick Njoroge said in an emailed statement Monday. That’s the first increase since July 2015. None of the five economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted the move. The…

US Sees Green Power as Key to Bridging Africa’s Energy Gap

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The American government’s efforts to help Africa address crippling electricity shortages will increasingly focus on bolstering the continent’s output of green energy and helping it attract the required investment, a top State Department official said. “Energy policy that warms our planet cannot continue,” US Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez told the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town on Tuesday. “We…

Bitcoin Tumbles to 11-Month Low While TerraUSD Extends Declines

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin fell below $30,000 and touched its lowest level since June, while the TerraUSD stablecoin continued its downward spiral. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value fell more than 6% at one point Wednesday to trade at $29,085, nearly an 11-month low. Analysts had been watching the $30,000 as a key threshold, with many projecting that losses could accelerate once the coin falls below it. Meanwhile, the TerraUSD algorithmic…

Inflation Rate at 23.6% Puts Focus on Ghana’s Central Bank

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s inflation rate climbed to the highest level in more than 18 years in April, underscoring the dilemma the central bank faces in trying to balance its efforts to stop intolerable price growth persisting and boosting the economy. Annual inflation quickened to 23.6%, the highest since January 2004, from 19.4% in March, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters Wednesday in Accra, the capital. The median estimate of five economists in…

Coinbase-Backed MARA to Help Central African Republic on Bitcoin

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MARA, a cryptocurrency company backed by Coinbase Global Inc., said it will advise the president of the Central African Republic after the nation became the second globally after El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Newly established MARA also announced its entry into Nigeria and Kenya, and that that it had secured $23 million in funding from companies including Coinbase, Alameda Research LLC and Distributed Global LLC. “MARA will become the official crypto…

Kenya, in a Corner, Presses On With Eurobond Plan as Yields Rise

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s Eurobonds are not exactly investors’ favorites. But the East African nation is forging ahead with a plan to issue another $1 billion of debt on top of existing securities that are the continent’s worst performers this year. It could cost the country, which is approaching an election in August and whose debt is at high risk of distress, according to International Monetary Fund. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes have…

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