Finance

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The International Monetary Fund upgraded its global economic growth forecast for the second time in three months, while warning about widening inequality and a divergence between advanced and lesser-developed economies. The global economy will expand 6% this year, up from the 5.5% pace estimated in January, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook published on Tuesday. That would be the most in four decades of data, coming after…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) — The International Monetary Fund approved a $2.34 billion financing package for Kenya to support the country’s Covid-19 response and address an urgent need to reduce debt vulnerabilities. Approval of the so-called Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility will enable immediate disbursement of about $307.5 million for budget support in the East African nation, the Washington-based lender said Saturday in an emailed statement. “Kenya was hit hard at the onset…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The tax plan President Joe Biden laid out last week will likely hit technology and pharmaceutical companies particularly hard, although the challenge for legislators will be to minimize loopholes that could diminish the impact, tax experts said. Much of the most valuable assets at pharmaceutical and tech companies is intellectual property, like patents and algorithms — intangibles that make it easier for them to structure global operations in a…

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) — The private military contractor providing aerial support to Mozambican ground forces battling Islamic State-linked insurgents near a $20 billion natural gas project is set to leave the country in a week. Dyck Advisory Group’s one-year agreement is coming to an end and hasn’t been extended, with the last gunship helicopter flights on April 2, Lionel Dyck, the South African company’s founder, said by phone. That could leave state troops…

 NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Joe Biden laid out what he called a “bold” plan to rebuild U.S. infrastructure, but now needs an equally ambitious effort to wrangle it through Congress in the face of Republican opposition and criticism from within his Democratic Party. Biden, in a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, invoked the great public investments of the past — the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system and the space program —…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt said it may seek around $1 billion in compensation after a giant container vessel blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week and roiled shipping markets. The figure is a rough estimate of losses linked to transit fees, damage to the waterway during the dredging and salvage efforts, and the cost of equipment and labor, the Suez Canal Authority’s chief executive officer, Osama Rabie, said late Wednesday to…