Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, is to visit South Africa from January 5 to 7 2012.
One year on from the Arab Spring uprising following a death in Tunisia, it spread to Egypt, Libya and Syria. The youth revolt has truly gone global.
The IMF’s Christine Lagarde is right to worry about potential economic doomsday scenarios but the Europe of 2011 is different to that of the 1930s.
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has admitted to having an uninhibited sex life in a new book, while claiming to be the victim of a plot.
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/ 24 November 2011
Portugal’s workers have gone on strike in protest against harsh austerity measures imposed on the country for a bailout from the EU and IMF.
A major conservative party in Greece’s new unity government has refused to drop its opposition to signing reform pledges in return for crucial loans.
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/ 18 November 2011
A rise in off-balance sheet liabilities and a house price boom have left Chinese banks vulnerable to heavy losses.
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/ 16 November 2011
SA’s current fiscal predicament is partly due to the severity of economic shocks but also because of the inefficiency of product and labour markets.
The IMF says Swaziland’s economic growth will grind to near zero this year as the government’s fiscal crisis rocks banks and private businesses.
Cash-strapped Swaziland has pulled together enough loans from local banks to raise the $43-million needed to pay civil servants.
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/ 15 November 2011
The IMF says China’s financial system is at risk from bad loans, booming private lending and sharp falls in property prices.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to resign after a parliamentary revolt and a wave of market panic that has shaken the eurozone.
Italy’s readiness to approve austerity measures has spurred the formation of an emergency government to take Silvio Berlusconi’s position.
Under pressure from the EU to push through a bailout to save their country, Greek party leaders were struggling to agree on a new prime minister.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde will be taking her European rescue talks to Russia in her first official foreign trip, before visiting China and Japan.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faces a confidence vote with the fate of the nation’s EU/IMF bailout deal in the balance.
Greece’s government has backed out of a proposed referendum on staying in the euro, while European leaders moot Greek exit from the eurozone currency.
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/ 22 October 2011
The IMF is not seeking more funds from Gulf Arab oil exporters to bolster its resources and the region faces no major danger from the eurozone crisis.
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/ 19 October 2011
Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is expected to grow 5.25% in 2011, but if global growth slows, South Africa will be particularly hard hit, the IMF says.
It seems that every few years rich countries and their development institutions find a new "favourite friend" in Africa.
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has hit out at reports linking his name to an illegal prostitution ring.
The world’s leading economies are pressing Europe to act boldly within eight days to resolve the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis.
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/ 15 October 2011
The Afghan parliament has agreed to start repaying the central bank for its bailout of Kabulbank with a first instalment of $51-million.
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/ 15 October 2011
The world’s leading economies kept the pressure on Europe to sort out its debt crisis, with the urgency to be expressed at the end of the meeting.
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/ 14 October 2011
Dexia has become the first casualty of the 2011 banking crisis, with its Belgian arm being bought, providing a €90-billion guarantee for its financing
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/ 11 October 2011
Troika inspectors gave a lukewarm approval for a vital aid tranche to Greece, saying Athens was lagging on reforms needed to exit its debt crisis.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has held talks in Paris with President Nicolas Sarkozy on a crunch weekend for the European debt crisis.
The IMF says it’s "confident" of its talks with Greece on plans to trim its deficit that will lead to the release €8-billion in bailout funds
Greek officials have held talks with EU and IMF negotiators to free up urgently needed bailout loans.
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/ 27 September 2011
King Mswati III is unhappy that Greece is being bailed out by the IMF, not Swaziland.
The IMF says it is ready to discuss working with Malawi to try to get its stalled IMF aid programme back on track.
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/ 22 September 2011
Greece has adopted more austerity measures to secure a bailout instalment, and the IMF warned Europe’s debt crisis is putting banks’ capital at risk.