Kampala, Uganda | Godfrey Ssali | A section of MPs have advised President Museveni to cushion the economy against the effects of Covid-19 with a stimulus. The Stimulus, MPs led by Kampala Central’s Muhammad Nsereko said, includes the stay of all loan repayments, lowering of the Central Bank lending rate, as well …
Read More »Olympic Games postponed to 2021
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to no later than the summer of 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday. The Games were scheduled for July 24-August 9, but after telephone discussions between IOC president Thomas …
Read More »Economist, traders ask gov’t to protect businesses in coronavirus crisis
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Government needs to devise means of protecting the economy from crumbling as a result of the temporary shutdown of key businesses because of the coronavirus. Makerere University Business School-MUBS Economics Lecturer and Policy Analyst, Ramathan Ggoobi says the coronavirus (COVID-19), which has since been declared …
Read More »Bank of Japan unveils emergency measures over virus
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The Bank of Japan on Monday unveiled a series of emergency monetary policy measures to shore up the world’s third-largest economy, as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a global recession. In a meeting brought forward by two days, the BoJ said it would double its annual …
Read More »How Coronavirus could plunge Uganda’s economy into crisis
Coronavirus catastrophe: How it could plunge Uganda’s economy into crisis Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA & AGENCIES | On a normal day, the Kikuubo trading hub in downtown Kampala buzzes as thousands of traders and customers with wads of cash haggle over prices of all kinds of merchandise, most of which …
Read More »Japan suffers worst economic slump in five years
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Japan has suffered its worst quarterly GDP contraction in more than five years, with a tax hike and a deadly typhoon taking a toll on the world’s third-largest economy. The nation’s gross domestic product in the three months to December shrank 1.6 percent from the …
Read More »China virus threatens to hobble Gulf economies
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | The coronavirus crisis, which has already battered oil prices, threatens to further undercut Gulf economies battling a downturn and struggling to wean themselves from a decades-old energy addiction. The six Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates …
Read More »World’s 22 richest men have more than all women in Africa: Oxfam
Davos, Switzerland | AFP | The number of billionaires has doubled in the past decade and the world’s 22 richest men now have more wealth than all the women in Africa, Oxfam said Monday in an appeal to the Davos elite to get serious about inequality. “Our broken economies are …
Read More »China GDP grew 6.1% in 2019, slowest in three decades
Beijing, China | AFP | China’s economy weakened to its slowest pace in three decades in 2019 as weaker domestic demand and trade tensions with the United States took their toll, official data showed Friday. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.1 percent last year, its worst performance since 1990, …
Read More »Power cuts return to South Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s electricity utility Eskom at the weekend resumed power outages, citing a “vulnerable” generating system, just weeks after implementing the severest rationing in recent times. The debt-laden company which generates around 95 percent of the country’s electricity, on Sunday said the cuts …
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