Finance

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – In a promotional video, Amazon.com Inc. says its Cloud Cam home security camera provides “everything you need to monitor your home, day or night.” In fact, the artificially intelligent device requires help from a squad of invisible employees. Dozens of Amazon workers based in India and Romania review select clips captured by Cloud Cam, according to five people who have worked on the program or have direct knowledge of it. Those…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Trump administration is moving ahead with discussions around possible restrictions on portfolio flows into China, with a particular focus on investments made by U.S. government retirement funds, people familiar with the internal deliberations said. The efforts are advancing even after American officials pushed back strongly against a Bloomberg News report late last month that a range of such limits was under review. Trump officials last week held meetings on…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria and other members of OPEC are ready to cut crude supplies further if prices continue to tumble, according to the country’s oil minister. “Everybody agrees in OPEC that we need to stabilize the market. We cannot allow prices just to plummet,” Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said in a Bloomberg TV interview Friday. The country is committed to complying fully with its new production quota of 1.774 million barrels a…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s stand-alone credit profile was downgraded one notch at Fitch Ratings, signaling the South African power utility’s deteriorating ability to repay the debt without additional government support. Weakening revenue growth, profit-margin compression because of lower tariff increases, and higher primary energy costs were cited by Fitch as among the reasons for the reduction. Eskom’s poor liquidity and high debt levels are the worst among its peers,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Aliko Dangote, the richest person in Africa, is looking to expand cement capacity on the continent by 29% to 62 million tons, entrenching his flagship company’s position as the continent’s biggest producer of the construction material. The billionaire plans to add six million tons in Nigeria next year, taking volume in Dangote Cement Plc’s home market to 35 million tons, he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The World Trade Organization cut its global trade growth forecast for this year to the weakest level in a decade, warning that further rounds of tariffs in an environment of heightened uncertainty could spark a “destructive cycle of recrimination.” The volume of merchandise trade will increase by 1.2% this year and 2.7% next year, after a 3% advance in 2018, the WTO said in a report published Tuesday. The outlook marks…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid says he plans to change the government’s fiscal rules to allow spending on an “infrastructure revolution” and that the time is right to take advantage of low-interest rates. Speaking on Sky News Monday, Javid indicated he’s ready to relax the existing framework, which limits structural borrowing to 2% of gross domestic product. The comments came before the chancellor’s speech at the Conservative…