Investors may face a bumpy ride in the short term, but market prospects for later in 2008 look relatively positive, said unit trust company Stanlib on Wednesday. Stanlib forecasts a rise of 18% in the JSE all-share index over the next 12 months, assuming corporate earnings growth stays solid at 17%.
Trade in Kenya’s foreign exchange and stock markets was slow and volumes thin on Friday, as fears of more post-election violence kept many dealers at home. ”There’s not much activity. Most players are out,” said Bank of Africa forex dealer Robert Gatobu. ”It’s a wait-and-see attitude with players waiting for the political climate to calm down.”
Huge numbers of Kenyan police deployed on Friday to block an opposition rally in Nairobi as Washington sent its top Africa diplomat to help resolve a post-election crisis that has claimed more then 350 lives. On Thursday, police had used water cannon and tear gas to disperse opposition supporters marching on the city centre for a "million-man" rally.
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/ 7 December 2007
The new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to slash as much as 15% of the organisation’s staff in its first significant job cuts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s plans are aimed at reducing deficits and maintaining the relevance of the group.
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/ 5 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s former colonial master lost the stand-off over whether he or the British prime minister would attend an upcoming European-African summit, Robert Mugabe declared on Tuesday. Mugabe also said his nation, suffering chronic shortages of basic goods and worsening power and water outages, continued to defy predictions of economic collapse and social upheaval.
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/ 3 December 2007
The Zimbabwe state airline doubled its fares on Monday and the cost of a new passport went up thirty fold. Spiralling prices also saw restaurant and bar prices double over the weekend. A new spate of price increases in the crumbling economy dealt a further blow to official efforts to combat black-market dealing.
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/ 23 November 2007
Zimbabwe prepared on Friday to slash three more zeros from its currency for the second time in a year, as inflation soars in the crippled economy. Central bank Governor Gideon Gono said after months of planning, the issue of new currency bills was ”imminent”, state television and radio reported. The television showed a sample of a new Z note.
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/ 19 November 2007
Zimbabwe on Monday delayed the release of inflation data and said it might not be available ”for a while”, fuelling concerns the government had failed in its bid to hold back runaway prices. President Robert Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government’s effort to reverse a deep economic slide.
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/ 19 November 2007
The momentum towards regional integration in East Africa received encouragement from the United States this week, with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that it should boost economic growth in the five-member East Africa bloc. "This is a region that has showed great economic growth over the last couple of years," he said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Finance ministers and central banks chiefs from the G20 grouping of largest economies meeting near Cape Town expressed ”deep concern” over the effect of climate change on global food prices and forecast a modest slowdown in global economic growth.
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/ 16 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation shot to almost 15 000% last month, almost double the previous month’s rate and the worst mark yet in the country’s struggle with hyperinflation, according to reports on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent quoted official sources as saying annual inflation in October reached 14 850%.
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/ 16 November 2007
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s largest economies gather in Kleinmond in the southern Cape this weekend for a meeting of the Group of 20 countries. The event is described by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as probably the most significant gathering of economic policymakers seen to date in South Africa.
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/ 5 November 2007
Tighter monetary policy in South Africa and other emerging-market economies is ”very appropriate” given the upside risks to inflation, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Monday. Charles Collyns, deputy director for research at the IMF, said emerging markets face different problems to advanced economies.
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/ 4 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s judicial system has ground to a halt following a nationwide strike by magistrates, judges and prosecutors for higher wages, according to state radio on Saturday. A junior magistrate earns the equivalent of about a month, while a high court judge is paid about .
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/ 3 November 2007
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
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/ 26 October 2007
The Central African Republic’s President defended his country’s efforts to improve human rights at international donor talks on Friday meant to bolster much-needed economic and political reforms in his impoverished nation. Francois Bozize presented a new development strategy to European Union and United Nations officials.
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/ 23 October 2007
Talks on a deal to free up world trade are making progress, developing country leaders said on Monday, but the chairperson of key industry negotiations said more needed to be done to reach an agreement. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Doha round of trade could end in a deal by the end of the year.
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/ 22 October 2007
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo Rato, warned on Monday there are risks of an "abrupt fall" in the dollar, linked to a loss of confidence in dollar assets. "There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets," Rato told the IMF board of governors.
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/ 20 October 2007
A dozen main districts of the Zimbabwean capital were without power for the fifth straight day on Saturday. The state electricity company blamed technical faults for the massive power failure. A power surge after load-shedding on Monday blew a main high-voltage supply cable, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority said.
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/ 14 October 2007
The new heads at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) face the tough task of restoring credibility to the powerful financial bodies that hold an annual summit this month, analysts say. Negotiations are under way to reform the distribution of votes among the IMF’s 185 members.
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/ 11 October 2007
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Wednesday that globalisation must be ”inclusive and sustainable” if it is to help combat crushing poverty around the world. In a speech at the National Press Club, Zoellick said the World Bank should seek to foster such goals while guarding environmental protections.
The global credit squeeze is a "serious crisis" that is not over yet and will have an impact on government budgets, International Monetary Fund (IMF) outgoing head Rodrigo Rato said in an interview published on Monday. IMF managing director Rato said: "Policymakers should not think that the problems will stay at the desk of the bankers."
The Zimbabwe government said it is pressing ahead with legislation to seize a controlling share of foreign-owned mining interests in the country, the official media reported on Friday. Police also said a total of 23 585 corporate executives, store managers, traders, street vendors and bus drivers were arrested for overcharging since a prize freeze was ordered.
Zimbabwe set out Wednesday to demonstrate that Western economic sanctions were hurting ordinary people, the poor and even the unborn. In its first detailed policy statement on sanctions, the central bank disputed claims from Britain and the United States that their ”targeted sanctions” — like travel bans on top officials — did not hurt most Zimbabweans.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday to beware of the macroeconomic effects of a planned -billion loan from China to modernise the vast African country’s decrepit infrastructure and mining industry.
President Robert Mugabe renewed threats to seize foreign mining interests and businesses accused of profiteering, state radio reported on Tuesday. But the head of the central bank, Gideon Gono, warned against hasty and disruptive seizures in a country in economic crisis.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Monday he would travel to Zimbabwe this month to recommend multilateral mediation by African heads of state to try to solve the crisis in the Southern African country. ”Mbeki is a man of goodwill … [but] we should tackle the problem at the level of several heads of state, including Thabo Mbeki,” he said.
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/ 30 September 2007
The new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will ”have his work cut out” due to the global credit crunch, one of his predecessors said on Saturday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, was named head of the IMF on Friday.
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/ 28 September 2007
The trigger for Burma’s crisis is primarily economic rather than political. Although the main focus of the thousands of Burmese who have been taking to the streets is a demand for an end to the army dictatorship, it was the economy that propelled most of them to risk their lives.
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/ 23 September 2007
”Mugabe stands very tall and black,” boasted Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru in Zimbabwe on Saturday. ”Brown stands white and colonial.” It was a reminder of the intensity of the diplomatic row that has erupted over British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to boycott a Europe-Africa summit if Mugabe shows up.
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/ 21 September 2007
Gordon Brown or Robert Mugabe? One won’t go to a summit between Europe and Africa in December, but the Portuguese hosts say the potential rewards of closer ties between the two continents outweigh the antagonism between the leaders of Britain and Zimbabwe.
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/ 20 September 2007
The South African Cabinet has welcomed the recent breakthrough by the collective leadership of Zimbabwe on draft constitutional amendments. Zimbabwe’s main political parties have reportedly agreed that President Robert Mugabe should no longer be allowed to handpick members of the lower house of assembly.