The Editorial Team |

Moody’s downgrades Zambia’s issuer rating to B3 with negative outlook

Lusaka, Zambia, Capital Markets in Africa — Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has today downgraded Zambia’s long-term issuer rating to B3 from B2 and changed the outlook to negative from stable. The downgrade on the issuer rating was driven by: Greater-than-anticipated fiscal slippages in 2016 leading to material liquidity pressures and significant challenges to finance the budget deficit; The prospects of further deterioration in Zambia’s debt matrix in a lower growth environment, with the government debt likely…

Devaluation Bets Send Egyptian Stocks Rising to August High

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CAIRO, Egypt, Capital Market in Africa — Egyptian stocks surged to an eight-month high on speculation that authorities will devalue the currency for the second time this year. Local investors fueled a fifth day of gains as a persistent dollar shortage forced the Egyptian pound to a record low in black market trading. The nation’s decision to weaken its currency by the most in 13 years last month has so far proved insufficient to attract foreign investment…

Investment | Eni to invest EUR 20 bilion in Africa over next four years, CEO says

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Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Italy’s Eni plans to invest about 20 billion euros ($22.5 billion) in Africa over the next fours, mostly in oil and gas, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi said on Friday. “That represents about 60 percent of our investments” (over that period) he said in a presentation at the International Energy Agency in Paris. Descalzi said Eni, which is involved in projects in 15 African countries, will…

Algeria launches local bond issue to offset energy earnings drop

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Algiers, Algeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Algeria’s first local bond issue in years was opened on Sunday with the government hoping to secure new financing sources after a sharp drop in world oil prices has cut energy earnings that make up 60 percent of its budget. Algeria’s government has already started to cut back some state-subsidised energy services, reduced its 2015 and 2016 public spending and frozen some infrastructure projects. The bond issue, with…

Infrastructure | The future of Africa lies inside Africa, AfDB President Says

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Addis Ababa, Capital Markets in Africa: “If we don’t fix Africa’s infrastructure financing gap – which we put at some US $60-70 billion a year – we will continue to take two percentage points off Africa’s annual growth rates. And we cannot allow that to happen,” said African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina at the first ever Global Infrastructure Forum in Washington on Saturday. Sharing a panel with the heads of nine other Multilateral Development Banks and…

Zambia’s World-Beating Kwacha Shows Copper Can Outshine Gold

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LUSAKA, Zambia, Capital Markets in Africa — Zambia’s kwacha has gone from the world’s third-worst performance in 2015 to the best this year, outshining gold, silver and 150 other other currencies and precious metals tracked by Bloomberg. Further gains are in store as copper prices recover, according to ETM Analytics. The currency of Africa’s second-biggest copper producer has advanced 19.9 percent against the dollar in 2016, surpassing gold’s 16.3 percent gain, after slumping 42 percent in 2015….

Ghana’s Inflation Rate touches over-six-year high at 19.2% in March

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Accra, Ghana, Capital Markets in Africa — The outlook for achieving the Bank of Ghana’s medium term inflation target (8% ± 2%) could shift further into late 2017 (from the projected mid-2017) as inflationary pressures remain elevated on the back of high cost-push factors. The year-on-year increase in Ghana’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) shocked expectations with a 70bps surge to 19.2% in Mar-2016. Consequently, average y/y price inflation in Q1-2016 (18.9%) turned out 130bps higher…

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