Features | - Part 255

Africa Executives Welcome Thiam Move, Say There Should Be More

JOHANNESBURG – African business leaders cheered Tidjane Thiam’s appointment as chief executive of Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG this week. So far, though, Mr. Thiam’s ascent to the top of a western multinational looks like the exception to the rule that executives from the continent still don’t reach the top of the global corporate elite. “He’s a great leader who happens to have roots in Africa. At some point we need to get to…

Nigeria: Weakening Economic Outlook Driven by Low Oil Prices

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Introduction The recent sharp drop in oil prices is taking a heavy toll on Nigeria, the sixth largest net exporter of oil in the world. In 2015, economic activity is projected to slow and the fiscal and current accounts are expected to deteriorate. Although Nigeria has some room to live with higher fiscal and current account deficits in the short term, the economy has limited fiscal and external buffers (low levels of the Excess Crude…

How to make use of compounding in your FX trading

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ALBERT Einstein reportedly said that compound interest is “the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” There are examples of compounding in FX. One FXCM client, for instance, invested $14,000 over the last two years and made a $100,000 return. How? First, they held positions for 28 days on average. Second, the trader would only trade in line with strong trends. Finally, they would add to…

Managing Capital Flows: Lessons from Emerging Markets for Frontier Economies

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Capital flows, and their successful management, have long been a focus of the IMF’s work and policy advice. Indeed, when John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White—the principal architects of Bretton Woods—were discussing the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, they clashed on many points, but they were surprisingly in agreement when it came to cross-border capital flows. Both men took as their starting point that, as White said, “the desirability of encouraging the flow of productive…

Managing risk and expectations: Average True Range

Posted on by The Editorial Team

TRADING always involves risks and rewards. Your position has a potential upside (it’s the reason you trade), yet to be able to take advantage of it, you need to accept some risk. One simple way to assess this is to use the Average True Range (ATR) indicator. The indicator gives you the average range over the time frame you are trading. Say that you hold a bearish euro-dollar view. What would be a good profit…

Nigeria’s bank ratings placed on CreditWatch negative

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Standard & Poor’s placed the ‘BB-‘ long-term issuer credit rating on Access Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Zenith Bank on CreditWatch with negative implications, following similar action on Nigeria’s sovereign ratings. It expected the Nigerian banking sector to face difficulties in 2015. Also, it said that low global oil prices, the pressure on the Nigerian naira, the upcoming presidential elections and the regulatory changes are raising credit risks,…

Nigeria’s external shocks raise economic vulnerabilities

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Merrill Lynch projected Nigeria’s real GDP growth to decelerate to 3.5% in 2015 from an average annual growth rate of 5% between 2011 and 2014, due to the large terms of trade shock that has resulted from lower global oil prices. It said that the depreciation of the Nigerian naira would increase inflationary pressure and would weigh on domestic consumption that is heavily dependent on imports. In addition, it forecast the inflation rate to average…

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