By Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo
(Reuters) – Mining and trading company Glencore acknowledged on Monday the severity of the global commodity market slump as it suspended dividends and said it would sell assets and new shares to cut heavy debts built up through years of rapid expansion.
The London-listed company came under pressure to cut its net debt of $30 billion, one of the largest in the industry, as prices for its key products, copper and coal, sank to more than six-year lows. (more…)
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s inflation slowed to 11.6 percent year-on-year in August from 11.9 percent the previous month, owing to a dip in non-food items, the statistics office said on Monday.
The Central Statistics Agency said non-food price inflation fell to 9.2 percent from 9.7 percent in July.
The food inflation rate rose to 14.7 percent in August from 13.9 percent the previous month.
According to the latest report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), at 72nd Morocco is the most competitive country in Northern Africa (an improvement from the previous report), and ranked 4th in all of Africa. Above are Mauritius, South Africa and Rwanda at 39th, 56th and 62nd respectively. Morocco is making a transition toward lower, and eventually, elimination of subsidized government spending through collaboration with international lenders, and more toward innovation, education, and free trade leading to overall economic amelioration.
Ethiopia, a country of about 90 million people, covers just 1,127,127km2—less than 10% of the territory of China. Despite its comparably tiny size, Ethiopia is proving to be a massively important resource for China’s demand for essential minerals necessary in its insatiable demand for technological goods.
Some experts, British-born Ethiopia specialist Richard Pankhurst, believe that trade between the two countries could date back more than 1400 years. Though China’s demand on Ethiopia has evolved from exotic animals and jewelry to minerals and leather, their trade partnership has an unbroken past.
The Middle East is proving to be a lucrative market for Bosch, a German multinational company with expertise in engineering and electronics. The company closed the 2014 fiscal year with AED 945 million (approximately USD 257 million) in consolidated sales across 15 countries in the region, representing an increase of seven per cent over the previous year.
Since the opening of its regional office in Dubai a little over ten years ago, Bosch has experienced continued expansion and sales growth in the Middle East. The UAE now accounts for the highest sales in region, with the largest percentage of growth coming from power tools business.
Aliko Dangote is Africa’s richest man. Valued at $17.4billion, this Nigerian magnate is the 67th richest billionaire in the world, one of an elite circle of fabulously wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes in the poorest region of the world. Thirty years ago, Dangote received a loan from his uncle, which he used to break into commodity trading. In the intervening decades, 54-year-old Dangote has managed to build a multinational trading empire.
On May 20, 2015 The Boeing Company named Bernard Dunn the new president of Middle East Division. He succeeded Jeff Johnson who moved to the US in March 2015 to become a vice president of business development at Boeing Military Aircraft.
Dunn is now in charge for fulfilment of Boeing’s strategy towards Middle East and the company’s business development in Middle East region. He is responsible for GR, partnership development, expanding Boeing presence and improving company relationships with customers and shareholders. He will cooperate with the President of Boeing Saudi Arabia Ahmed Jazzaar.
In June, the world’s largest free trade block was signed into existence in perhaps the world’s least likely place: Africa.
Three existing African economic blocks, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC), have formed a 26-state free trade block stretching from Cairo to Cape Town. The goal of this enormous free trade zone is to increase the amount of intra-African trade. Currently, the poor quality of roads, railways and unreliable nature of airlines have inhibited trade across the continent.
As an internationally renowned economist and author, Dambisa Moyo has analyzed the many aspect of macroeconomics and global current affairs, with focus on developing economies, market trends and finance, earning herself a position as one of the most respected people of our generation.
Ms. Moyo was born on September 15, 1969 in Lusaka, Zambia, but spent a fair portion of her childhood in the United States while her father completed a postgraduate degree, after which they returned to Zambia. Her father ended up with a career in an academic setting as well as public administration and her mother, with a career as chairwoman at a bank. The success of Dambisa’s parents had set her up with opportunity for her future education and career. She began a chemistry degree at the University of Zambia, however, chose to complete it back in the United States. This was done at American University in Washington, D.C., followed by a Master’s degree in business administration. She went on to obtain a second Master’s degree in public administration from Harvard, as well as a Ph.D. in economics from Oxford, with her thesis on savings- “Why Is It That Some Countries Save and Others Not?” Her interest and expertise lie in a number of fields which include, but certainly are not limited to, business strategy, economic modeling, foreign direct investment, unemployment, commodity supply, currency wars, public markets, U.S. fiscal policies, oil and trade.
After years of increasing allocations to sovereign wealth funds (SWF), the persisting decline in oil prices has led regional fund managers to prepare for major changes.
As Middle Eastern governments became more dependent on the influx of foreign currency from oil sales, SWFs were set up as an insurance policy against potential decreased revenue streams.
Derived from surpluses in reserves, SWFs provide a means of reallocating income into other investments in order to diversify the country’s revenue. Should funding decline, these investments could be sold on short notice to support economic growth.
