Benguela, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Joao Lourenco has named diversifying the oil-dependent economy as his top priority after he became the country’s first new leader in 38 years. And one natural and readily available resource that has been identified is fish — but a lack of equipment and …
Read More »Marx at 200: Germany torn over revolutionary’s legacy
Trier, Germany | AFP | As Germany prepares to mark Karl Marx’s 200th birth anniversary, the revolutionary philosopher’s legacy remains divisive more than a quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With scars from the Cold War still fresh, people from capitalist former West Germany and the once …
Read More »Maduro raises minimum wage again as Venezuela battles hyperinflation
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP |Â Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday he was almost doubling the minimum wage in an effort to tackle the crisis-wracked Latin American country’s runaway inflation. Venezuela’s economic collapse ranks as one of the worst in modern history, with hyperinflation likely to see prices soaring 13,000 percent …
Read More »Long battle to stop firms bribing Africa for contracts
Paris, France | AFP | A spectacular probe into French tycoon Vincent Bollore over suspected graft in Africa marks a rare exception among corporate titans doing business south of the Sahara. Bollore — charged on Wednesday over contracts to operate ports in Guinea and Togo — is by far the …
Read More »Mozambique cracks open its cashews to boost the economy
Nampula, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique is going nuts about cashews, and they’re boosting the economy’s health. The country’s cashew nut industry, one of the world’s biggest, was dealt a body blow first by the 1977-1992 civil war and then by a controversial World Bank assistance package. Now, the government …
Read More »Oil, metals prices set to rise amid trade tensions: World Bank
Washington, United States | AFP |Â Crude oil prices are expected to jump 23 percent this year amid strong economic growth, while metals prices are rising, hit by ongoing trade tensions, the World Bank said Tuesday. The World Bank raised its forecast for oil prices to an average of $65 a …
Read More »India tops world remittance payments, Uganda at $1.3 billion
Remittance payments hit record in 2017: World Bank Washington, United States | AFP | Payments from immigrants back to their home countries rebounded to reach a new record in 2017 but the costs of transferring funds also increased, the World Bank said Monday. Uganda’s remittance inflows improved from $1.1 billion …
Read More »World Bank shareholders approve $13 bln capital increase
Washington, United States | AFP | World Bank shareholders approved a “historic” increase in the bank’s lending capacity Saturday after the United States backed a reform package that curbs loans and charges more for higher income countries like China. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said neither China nor any …
Read More »Minister’s ouster unlikely to slow Sudan’s push to get off US ‘terror’ list
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | President Omar al-Bashir’s dismissal of Sudan’s foreign minister, Khartoum’s top negotiator with Washington, is unlikely to affect efforts to have Khartoum removed from a US “terrorism” blacklist, experts say. On Thursday, Bashir sacked Ibrahim Ghandour, who headed negotiations with Washington that in October helped lift …
Read More »IMF’s Lagarde warns against harming trade, investment
Washington, United States | AFP |Â With US-China frictions hanging over its annual meeting, the International Monetary Fund on Thursday warned governments to avoid harming trade and investment which have been key drivers of the global economic recovery. IMF chief Christine Lagarde said escalating trade tensions could reverberate through the world …
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