By Arpan Varghese

(Reuters) – Gold held steady early on Monday, supported by safe haven buying amid rising geopolitical tensions over North Korea and a weaker dollar.

Investors are closely watching developments after the reclusive state fired fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest coast, days after it promised retaliation over U.S.-South Korean military drills.

“We expect gold to trade with a bid tone in early Asia on safe-haven flows, following a series of North Korean missile launches this morning,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.

The dollar also dipped in Asian trading, as investors locked in gains after the greenback’s rise last week on growing expectations of a U.S. interest rate hike this month. The dollar index was down 0.2 percent to 101.39.

Spot gold was little changed at $1,234.20 per ounce at 0215 GMT. The metal had hit $1,222.51, the lowest since Feb. 15, in the previous session on signals of a hike in U.S. interest rates this month.

U.S. gold futures were up 0.7 percent to $1,234.6.

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s long-stalled ‘liftoff’ of interest rates may finally get airborne this year as policymakers from Chair Janet Yellen to regional leaders across the United States signaled that the era of easy money is drawing to a close.

Yellen capped off a seemingly coordinated push from the central bank when she cemented the view that the Fed will raise rates at its next meeting on March 14-15, and likely be able to move faster after that than it has in years.

Spot gold may revisit its March 3 low of $1,222.51 per ounce, as its drop from the Feb. 27 high of $1,263.80 has not completed, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Meanwhile, hedge funds and money managers boosted their net long position in COMEX gold to the highest in more than three months in the week to Feb. 28, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.

In other precious metals, spot silver fell 0.5 percent to $17.87 per ounce, while platinum inched lower by 0.1 percent, to $993.50.

Palladium was up 0.5 percent at $775.00. The metal had hit $752.72, the lowest since Feb. 6 in the previous session.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Read more

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s trade balance turned positive in the fourth quarter of 2016 after exports rose by more than half, the national bureau of statistics said on Saturday, the first positive reading since the same quarter a year ago.

But Africa’s largest economy shrank 1.5 percent over the course of the full year due to lower oil revenues and a shortage of hard currency, its first annual contraction in quarter of a century.

With limited manufacturing capacity, Nigeria imports most of what it consumes. Fourth-quarter imports rose 46.4 percent from the previous year to 2.31 trillion naira ($7.6 billion), the statistics bureau said.

But exports more than compensated for that rise, jumping 53.5 percent in value terms from a year earlier to 2.98 trillion naira, the statistics bureau said.

The balance of trade for the fourth quarter was 671 billion naira. The net trade balance stood at minus 290 billion naira ($953 million) for all of 2016.

($1 = 304.2000 naira)

(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Read more

CAIRO (Reuters) – Remittances from Egyptians abroad increased by 20 percent year-on-year in the three months following the country’s November currency float, totalling about $5 billion, a central bank statement said on Monday.

Remittances for the month of January were up 23 percent year-on-year, reaching $1.6 billion, the statement said.

The central bank floated the Egyptian pound on Nov. 3, aiming to unlock foreign currency inflows and crush a black market for dollars that had discouraged people from channelling foreign currency through the banking system.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Read more

CAIRO (Reuters) – Germany has offered Egypt $500 million to support its economic programme and medium-sized and small businesses, the Egyptian ministry of investment and international cooperation said on Friday.

“It was agreed with the German side (that they would) provide $250 million to support the economic programme … as well as $250 million to support several other sectors, including micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, ” it said in a statement.

The support will come in the form of grants and concessional funds, a government official told Reuters. The German offer came during a visit to Egypt by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Read more

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s central bank has kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.25 percent, the bank said on Thursday.

The bank last cut its main interest rate in October 2015, from 4.75 percent.

(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Read more

MAPUTO (Reuters) – Mozambique will seek to negotiate a restructuring of part of its debt, its prime minister said on Wednesday.

The southern African nation is struggling to repay loans of more than $2 billion that were not approved by parliament or disclosed publicly.

“We will negotiate with the creditors to restructure these debts,” said Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, adding that the nation wants to honour its debts “in a balanced way”, the state news agency reported.

(Writing by TJ Strydom; editing by John Stonestreet)

Read more

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s inflation rate jumped in February, data showed on Tuesday, as acute drought drove food costs sharply higher.

Inflation rose to 9.04 percent year-on-year – above the government’s target range – from 6.99 percent in January, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said. Month on month it rose to 1.80 percent from 1.00 percent.

KNBS said the food and non-alcoholics drinks index gained 3.28 percent on the month and 16.50 percent on the year, as staples including maize flour, milk and potatoes rose in price.

That segment accounts for 36 percent of Kenya’s inflation basket.

The East African nation is experiencing an acute drought with an estimated 2.7 million people in need of food aid.

February’s annual reading left inflation well above the medium-term target range of 2.5-7.5 percent.

“This is a worryingly high CPI print…, much higher than the market consensus. While this is likely to be food-related, it does create a dilemma for the central bank,” Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa at Standard Chartered Bank in London, said in an emailed comment.

In late January the central bank held its benchmark lending rate at 10.0 percent, saying inflation was expected to remain within the government’s preferred band in the short term.

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; editing by John Stonestreet)

Read more