Finance

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Federal Reserve may have stoked one of the strongest corporate debt market rallies in decades, but it’s too soon to declare an all-clear for credit with the economy facing a potentially rocky road ahead. Sure, U.S. investment-grade borrowing costs have retreated to near all-time lows, and companies have sold $1 trillion of bonds at the fastest pace on record — evidence that merely announcing a plan to pump liquidity…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt has formed a multi-donor platform to help boost the North African nation’s economy, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al Mashat said. The program “includes electricity, transportation, the health sector,” Al Mashatsaid in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. The platform received help and support “through the sovereign, but also through the private sector, through credit lines, through Egyptian banks that are availed through the EBRD and the EIB,”…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The economic calamity of the coronavirus broke South Africa’s resistance to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. And now some allies of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress worry that the $4.2 billion loan his government is negotiating with the Washington-based agency marks the first step toward a slippery slope of submission. “This is a precursor because Cyril’s government doesn’t have the resources,” said Lumkile Mondi, an economics…

SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) — Sudan is seeking its first staff-monitored International Monetary Fund program since 2014 as the one-time pariah works toward reintegrating with the global economy. Agreeing to the non-financial initiative in June talks and persuading the U.S. to drop its long-standing listing of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism are key planks of the transitional government’s plan, Finance Minister Ibrahim El-Badawi said in emailed comments. A new IMF advisory program…

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Angola, Africa’s second-biggest oil producer, is in talks with some of its crude-importing partners to reprofile its debt and has joined a separate initiative to negotiate the suspension of bilateral debt payments. The move will help Angola tackle the pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the recent drop in oil prices and production cuts agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Angola’s government debt is set to…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Efforts to reduce the debt burden of African nations continued this week with private creditors offering a blueprint for contributing and the Paris Club of official lenders signing off on a payment halt for a sixth country. Private investors said they may offer low-income countries cash to offset debt payments due this year, a mechanism that could avoid triggering default. The plan was put forward by the Institute of International Finance,…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — A quarter of firms using the U.K. government’s furloughing plan can’t afford to take on any of the cost of paying their workers, the Institute of Directors think tank says. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has promised to announce details of how he plans to taper the program — which is currently paying 80% of the wages for 8.4 million jobs — this week. The changes are set to allow…