News | - Part 67

Tourism overtakes gold in foreign exchange earnings in Tanzania

According to the East African News, tourism has now overtaken gold to become the chief foreign exchange earner for Tanzania. USD 2.05bn in earnings was generated in tourism in the 12 months to January 2015. This was an increase of 8.47% from the US$1.89bn earned in the 12 months ending January 2014, overtaking gold as Tanzania’s leading foreign exchange earner. The Bank of Tanzania’s February Monthly Economic Review indicates that gold exports plunged from USD…

Cote d’Ivoire forecasts double-digit growth for 2015

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s top cocoa producer whose economy was battered by a civil war and ensuing political unrest, should see double-digit growth this year according to Prime Minister Daniel Kablan. The West African country has seen its economy expand on average by 9.0% since 2012, and this year “we want to reach double-digit growth,” the Prime Minister added. “We are ambitious in Cote d’Ivoire,” he went on, adding that he expected the country to…

Rwanda holds rates at 6.5 pct, inflation seen in check

Posted on by The Editorial Team

KIGALI (Reuters) – Rwanda’s central bank held its key repo rate at 6.5 percent on Thursday, Governor John Rwangombwa said, adding inflation had been low in the past two months and was not expected to exceed 3.5 percent by the end of 2015. Rwanda’s urban year-on-year inflation rate fell to 0.7 percent in February from 1.4 percent the previous month, which the statistics bureau had said was due to a drop in transport costs. “Despite…

Kenya shilling 5-10 pct overvalued, no policy shift needed: IMF

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s shilling is overvalued by about 5 to 10 percent to the dollar but demand for imports and other market pressures are likely to weaken it gradually so no policy change is required, the IMF said. The shilling has lost 1.7 percent since the start of 2015 against the dollar, after a 4.5 percent fall in 2014 that was largely blamed on a downturn in the vital tourism industry after a number…

Zimbabwe domestic borrowing up 52 pct to $544 mln y/y in Jan

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe government’s domestic borrowing jumped 52 percent to $544.03 in January year-on-year from $358.80 percent in the same period a year ago, the central bank said on Thursday. The southern African country is struggling with falling revenue from taxes, which stood at $469 million in January against a target of $542 million, as the economy stalls and businesses are forced to lay-off workers or shut down. The central bank said the government…

Kenya’s Housing Finance raises 2.95 bln shilling in rights issue

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan mortgage firm Housing Finance said on Wednesday it raised 2.95 billion shillings ($32 million) in a rights issue to help the company increase its lending base. The lender initially planned to raise 3.5 billion shillings, but said in a statement that 84 percent of its shareholders had taken up their rights in an oversubscribed issue that received 9.01 billion shillings in bids. Housing Finance says it opted for a cash call…

Nigeria Stock Exchange, MSCI sign agreement on developing new market indices

Posted on by The Editorial Team

MSCI Incorporated, a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange have signed a “strategic co-operation agreement to develop and market a co-branded “family of indexes” for the Nigerian equity market. Based on the agreement, existing and future indexes would be branded as the MSCI/NSE Indexes, including the flagship NSE 30 Index and NSE 50 Index, which will become the MSCI/NSE 30 Index and the MSCI/NSE 50 Index, respectively, a…

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