<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stock-value-rising-and-falling-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-404443" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stock-value-rising-and-falling-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stock-value-rising-and-falling-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stock-value-rising-and-falling-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stock-value-rising-and-falling.jpg 1254w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Macro view of a screen of trading terminal with abstract financial graph and digits. Trading and forex concept. 3D Rendering</figcaption></figure>



Jan 20 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging market shares rose on Friday and were on course for their fourth straight week of gains as optimism around China lifting some COVID curbs and hopes for smaller interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve eased recession worries.



China stocks rallied in the run-up to Lunar New year holidays, with Hong Kong&#8217;s benchmark index&nbsp;.HIS&nbsp;up 1.8%.



A top official in China said the worst was over in its battle against COVID-19 ahead of what is expected to be one of the busiest days of travel in years on Friday. Chinese blue-chips&nbsp;.CSI300&nbsp;rose 0.6%.&nbsp;.SS



Elsewhere, South Africa&#8217;s top 40 index&nbsp;.JTOPI&nbsp;rose 0.4% to hit new highs. MSCI&#8217;s index of emerging market shares&nbsp;.MSCIF&nbsp;was up 0.8%, and on track to gain about 0.6% this week.



&#8220;China&#8217;s reopening is clearly a big story that will shape EM this year, but we think its effects will be more muted than previous Chinese economic surges,&#8221; Citigroup strategists warned. They cited this year&#8217;s recovery being driven more by a revival of services and consumer spending while fiscal and monetary policy stay neutral.



&#8220;While a consumer-led Chinese recovery has some positive effects on EM, it won&#8217;t be as friendly as an investment-led recovery&#8230; It is also worth considering the negative effects of outbound tourism on China&#8217;s balance of payments, creating room for more capital outflows, and adding volatility to the renminbi.&#8221;



Emerging market currencies&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;were largely muted on the day and were on course to break a four-week winning streak. Some renewed worries amid weak U.S. economic data and hawkish commentary from U.S. Federal Reserve policy makers tempered risk appetite.



EM bonds flows accelerated to the largest level since June 2021, according to JPMorgan data, as hard-currency bond fund inflows increased $1.9 billion from $1 billion. Flows to EM bonds and equities stood at $3.8 billion and $12.9 billion respectively from the beginning of the year, JPM said.



Turkey&#8217;s lira&nbsp;TRY=&nbsp;fell 0.2% after closing flat following an expected decision by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N34433H&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">central bank</a>&nbsp;to keep the policy rate unchanged at 9%.



Turkey will offer a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N34517U&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wide-ranging restructuring package</a>&nbsp;that will allow citizens to restructure various types of debt, from water bills to insurance premiums, broadcaster NTV and other Turkish media reported on Friday.



South Africa&#8217;s rand&nbsp;ZAR=&nbsp;inched up 0.1% but was on course for its biggest weekly drop in five months as worries about regular power outages impacting economic activity in Africa&#8217;s most industrialized nation weighed.&nbsp;.J



For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2023, see&nbsp;<a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh</a>



For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2023, see&nbsp;<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX</a>



For TOP NEWS across emerging markets <a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ARR:5877&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Macro view of a screen of trading terminal with abstract financial graph and digits. Trading and forex concept. 3D Rendering

Shares on course for fourth week of gains but caution lingers

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="560" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-820x560.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-422548" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-820x560.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-300x205.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-132x90.jpg 132w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-1536x1050.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1455568140-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; JANUARY 10: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen participates in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland at the Department of the Treasury on January 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. Secretary Yellen agreed to stay on as Treasury Secretary following a request from President Biden. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



DAKAR, Jan 19 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will kick off a year of visits by top U.S. officials to Africa on Friday aiming to firm up U.S.-Africa ties after decades in which China has dominated investment across the continent.



In a speech to be delivered at a business event in Senegal&#8217;s capital Dakar, the first leg of her three-country trip, Yellen will map out the U.S. vision for strengthening African relations, eyeing the massive economic opportunities created by its demographic boom.



With stops planned in Zambia and South Africa, Yellen&#8217;s visit comes after a lengthy meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Zurich on Tuesday, when both sides underscored the need for greater coordination on global challenges such as climate change and food security.



U.S. officials said the increased engagement by President Joe Biden and U.S. officials was aimed at deepening existing ties with Africa, but they are also pitching what they say is a more sustainable alternative to China&#8217;s collateralised loans and non-market approach.



For their part, African nations say they are keen for increased investment and resources, at a time when tightening financial conditions and the appreciating U.S. dollar have raised the cost of servicing existing debt and stretched fiscal spending caused by COVID-19 and higher inflation.



But some remain sceptical of a Cold War scenario that forces them to choose sides, said one industry leader.



U.S. officials played down any rivalry.



&#8220;We&#8217;re here for the U.S.-Africa relationship. And that&#8217;s kind of it, full stop. It&#8217;s not about &#8230; U.S.-China dynamics,&#8221; one senior Treasury official told reporters.



The concept of &#8220;playing out broader geopolitics between ourselves and another third country on the African continent is exactly the opposite of the kind of relationship that we want to build and strengthen with Africa&#8221;, a second senior Treasury official added.



BOOMING POPULATION



In her remarks, Yellen will underscore the message delivered by Biden at last month&#8217;s Africa Leaders Summit in Washington: &#8220;The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa.&#8221;



Yellen will focus on building relationships and understanding the barriers to investment, with no new financial announcements planned on top of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33314U&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the $15 billion announced</a>&nbsp;at the December summit, officials said.



Chinese trade with Africa is about four times that of the United States, and Beijing rapidly expanded its lending by offering cheaper loans, although the opaque terms and collateral requirements are now being questioned by some African countries.



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N31F2F4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yellen has criticised</a>&nbsp;Beijing &#8211; now the world&#8217;s largest creditor &#8211; for dragging its heels in restructuring the debt of Zambia and other poor countries in Africa, an issue Treasury officials said they raised during Tuesday&#8217;s meeting with Liu.



China, for its part, argues that multilateral institutions should also be required to accept reductions in the debt they are owed. It says it supports resolving Zambia&#8217;s debt issues.



The U.S. Treasury secretary will highlight the opportunities presented by Africa&#8217;s young and booming population, with Africans projected to make up a quarter of the world’s population in less than 30 years and its people becoming more educated, urbanised, and connected to the rest of the world.



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AB9N32R024&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China</a>&nbsp;this week reported its first population drop in six decades. By contrast, the number of Sub-Saharan Africans reaching working age will exceed that of the rest of the world combined by 2035, presenting big opportunities for growth, but also bigger markets for U.S. goods, Yellen said.



Yellen cited $11 billion in commitments by the U.S. Development Finance Corp and $3 billion in programs by the Millennium Challenge Corp in 14 African countries, with more in the pipeline.



The G7 group of wealthy Western nations also planned to mobilise some $600 billion for global infrastructure investments over the next five years, she said.



Biden also last month backed the addition of the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 major economies, known as the G20.



&#8220;African countries firmly belong at the table. Their communities are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of global challenges. And any serious solution requires African leadership and African voices,&#8221; Yellen said.



(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Vin Shahrestani)

Treasury Secretary Yellen Meets With Visiting Canadian Officials

Deeper ties on Yellen’s mind as U.S begins year of African engagement

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-422542" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-631883172-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, speaks during a panel session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 17 &#8211; 20. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Jan 19 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa&#8217;s economic growth will stabilise at 4% over the next two years, and inflation will slow as the continent rebounds from a pandemic-induced slump and external shocks including the Ukraine war, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).



While Africa avoided some of the worst health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries were hit hard by the economic fallout. And an initial 2021 recovery from the first pandemic shocks was hampered by rising inflation, spiking food prices and tightening global monetary policy last year.



Africa&#8217;s gross domestic product growth slowed to 3.8% in 2022 from 4.8% in 2021. But in its Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook published on Thursday, the bank projected growth will accelerate to 4.0% this year and 3.9% in 2024, outstripping world averages.



&#8220;Africa has demonstrated continued resilience,&#8221; AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina wrote in a forward to the report. &#8220;The top five performing African countries before the COVID-19 pandemic are projected to grow by more than 5.5%.&#8221;



Buoyed by revenues and investment related to large natural gas projects, Mozambique and Senegal will rank among Africa&#8217;s fastest growing economies. Senegal is projected to see its economy grow 10.2% in 2023 with Mozambique expanding 8% next year.



Africa&#8217;s two biggest economies &#8211; Nigeria and South Africa &#8211; will remain a drag on continental growth however, with projections of 3.1% and 1.4% respectively for this year.



Those growth rates are slightly higher than International Monetary Fund forecasts.



Average inflation, meanwhile, which last year hit 13.8% &#8211; the highest rate in more than a decade &#8211; will ease to 8.8% by 2024.



But the AfDB cautioned that Africa&#8217;s expected economic improvement remains fragile.



The number of African countries in debt distress or at high risk of it has ballooned since the start of the pandemic.



Tightening monetary policy in wealthy countries has aggravated the strain on Africa, driving up debt service costs, restricting access to international capital markets and increasing instability in foreign exchange markets.



(Reporting by Joe BavierEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

Opening Day Of The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2017

Africa’s economic growth to stabilise, inflation seen easing – AfDB

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="517" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-820x517.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-416545" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-820x517.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-300x189.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-143x90.jpeg 143w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-768x484.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-1536x969.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>A participant stands near a logo of World Bank at the International Monetary Fund &#8211; World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12, 2018.
Johannes Christo | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Washington — The World Bank is seeking to vastly expand its lending capacity to address climate change and other global crises and will negotiate with shareholders ahead of April meetings on proposals that include a capital increase and new lending tools, according to an “evolution road map” seen by Reuters on Monday.



The road map document — sent to shareholder governments — marks the start of a negotiation process to alter the bank’s mission and financial resources and shift it away from a country- and project-specific lending model used since its creation at the end of World War 2.



The World Bank management aims to have specific proposals to change its mission, operating model and financial capacity ready for approval by the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Development Committee in October, according to the document.



A World Bank spokesperson said that the document aimed to provide details on the scope, approach and timetable for the evolution, with regular updates for shareholders and decisions later in the year.



The reform of multilateral development banks was a topic of fierce debate in recent months after developing countries faced mounting pressure from inflation, and energy and food shortages fuelled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, slowing growth, mounting debt burdens and growing vulnerability to climate shocks.



The pressures laid bare the inadequacy of the World Bank and IMF’s structures — designed at the end of World War 2 to focus on rebuilding peacetime economies — to deal with current global calamities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">AAA rating to stay</h2>



The development lender will explore options like a potential new capital increase, changes to its capital structure to unlock more lending and new financing tools such as guarantees for private sector loans and other ways to mobilise more private capital, according to the document.



But the World Bank Group (WBG) is not ready to bow to demands from some non-profit organisations (NPOs) to abandon its long-standing top-tier credit rating to boost lending, stating: “Management will explore all options that increase the capacity of the WBG while maintaining the AAA rating of the WBG entities.”



US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has called for the World Bank and others to revamp their business models to boost lending and harness private capital to fund investments that more broadly benefit the world, such as helping middle-income countries transition away from coal power.



A US treasury spokesperson declined comment on the World Bank document.



A spokesperson for Britain’s foreign office said the UK “strongly supports” the World Bank proposals to explore all options to further increase support to developing and emerging economies.



The bank said proposals under consideration include higher statutory lending limits, lower equity-to-loan requirements and the use of callable capital — money pledged, but not paid in by member governments — for lending.



Development experts say this shift would greatly increase the amount of lending compared to the current capital structure, which only uses paid-in capital.



“The challenges the world is facing call for a massive step up in the international community’s support,” the bank said in the document. “For the WBG to continue to play a central role in development and climate finance, it will need a concerted effort by both shareholders and management to step up WBG financing capacity.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inadequate-funding">Inadequate funding</h2>



The road map document cautions that a build-up of lending for climate change, healthcare, food security and other needs may require a capital increase to boost the capacity of the World Bank’s middle-income lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).



IBRD’s $13bn capital increase in 2018 “was designed to be prepared for one mid-sized crisis a decade, and not multiple, overlapping crises” including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the effects of accelerating climate change, the document said. IBRD’s crisis buffers will likely be depleted by mid-2023, it said.



Another option, according to the road map, is for World Bank shareholder countries to step up periodic contributions to the lender’s fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA), which have declined in recent years despite increasing needs.



The road map also offers the option of creating a new concessional lending trust fund for middle-income countries that would focus on global public goods and be similar in structure to the IDA, with regular funding replenishments that would be separate from the bank’s capital structure.



“Such a fund may attract donor bilateral resources separate from shareholder budget lines supporting the WBG, and potentially include donors beyond shareholders,” such as private foundations, the bank said.



But environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth said the proposal did not go far enough and World Bank shareholders needed to ensure the lender was not “part of the problem”.



“A true evolutionary road map must commit to ending financing for fossil fuels, industrial animal agriculture, petrochemical infrastructure, corporate-friendly false solutions and harmful activities in biodiverse areas,” Luisa Abbott Galvao, senior international policy campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said in an emailed statement.



The World Bank also said that the evolution of its mission to increase climate lending while maintaining good development outcomes will require additional staff and budget resources, which have declined 3% in real terms over the past 15 years.&nbsp;

106944604-16321717072021-09-20t205319z_656748898_rc2wtp9oerrm_rtrmadp_0_worldbank-ethics-report

World Bank to vastly expand lending capacity to fight climate change

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="612" height="350" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1040865674-612x612-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400879" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1040865674-612x612-1.jpg 612w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1040865674-612x612-1-300x172.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px" /><figcaption>Stock market report. 3d illustration</figcaption></figure>



Dec 21 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging market stocks steadied on Wednesday after touching a three-week low in the previous session, with South African equities boosted by miners as prices of precious metals soared.



The MSCI&#8217;s index for emerging market stocks&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;rose 0.1% after closing 0.7% lower on Tuesday when the Bank of Japan stunned markets with a shift in monetary policy that dampened hopes of global central bank tightening cycles ending anytime soon.



EM stocks have been hammered, much like their developed world counterparts, amid tighter monetary conditions and a slowdown in China, which is now experiencing a spike in coronavirus infections after a recent loosening of its zero-COVID policy.



Prices of gold hovered near one-week highs hit in the previous session, helping lift shares of South African miners including Sibanye Stillwater&nbsp;SSWJ.J, Impala Platinum Holdings&nbsp;IMPJ.J&nbsp;and Northam Platinum Holdings, which added between 1.5% and 2.3%.



The South African blue-chip stocks index&nbsp;.JTOPI&nbsp;rose 0.5%.



&#8220;The weaker dollar makes the metal cheaper for foreign buyers and there may also be a &#8216;safe haven&#8217; play coming in as well, given the pessimism surrounding prospects for the global economy,&#8221; said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown in London.



Currencies of developing nations were rangebound on the day, with the MSCI&#8217;s EM currency index&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;flat but a recent weakness in the dollar index&nbsp;=USD&nbsp;has positioned EMFX for weekly gains.



Higher exposure to commodities have helped certain emerging markets more than others, with Latin American regions set to outperform broader EMs in 2022. The MSCI&#8217;s index for Latam stocks&nbsp;.MILA00000PUS&nbsp;is set to end the year flat against a near 23% plunge in the broader EM index&nbsp;.MSCIEF.



Russia&#8217;s rouble&nbsp;RUBUTSTN=MCX&nbsp;plunged to its weakest level&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33B0AY&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since early May</a>&nbsp;past 70 against the dollar, extending weekly losses on fears over sanctions on Russian oil and gas spooking the market.



For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh</a>



For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX</a>



For TOP NEWS across emerging markets <a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ARR:5877&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Stock market report. 3d illustration

Stocks steady after recent low, miners boost South Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="612" height="357" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400669" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1.jpg 612w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1-300x175.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px" /><figcaption>World map with charts and graphs as symbols of global finance</figcaption></figure>



Dec 20 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A gauge for emerging market stocks fell to its lowest level in three weeks on Tuesday after a surprise shift in the Bank of Japan&#8217;s monetary policy and a surge in China COVID cases, while South Africa&#8217;s rand extended gains to a second day.



The BOJ&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33A01A&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decided to allow</a>&nbsp;the 10-year bond yield to move 50 basis points either side of its 0% target, wider than the previous 25 basis point band, in a move aimed at easing some of the costs of prolonged monetary stimulus.



It was a move widely seen as a possible end to the central bank&#8217;s ultra-loose monetary policy, rattling global equity markets and sending&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N33A1RE&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the yen</a>JPY=EBS&nbsp;to a four-month high. The 10-year JGB yield&nbsp;JP10YTN=JBTC&nbsp;jumped to 0.46% from the previous cap at 0.25%.



The MSCI&#8217;s index for developing world stocks&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;fell&nbsp;1.2% by 0853 GMT,&nbsp;and hit its lowest level since late November. This comes just as other major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve last week, backed hawkish views, dousing hopes that monetary policy tightening would end soon.



&#8220;The BOJ has very much provided the icing on the cake to these unwanted central bank messages, as we have now seen what was the most dovish central bank in the world also take its first steps down the road of monetary tightening,&#8221; said Stuart Cole, head macro economist at Equiti Capital in London.



Also adding to the risk-averse mood was a surge in coronavirus infections in China, with many fearing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33536A&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new COVID wave</a>&nbsp;that could further constrain corporate supply chains.



Shanghai stocks&nbsp;.SSEC,&nbsp;.CSI300&nbsp;ended their second straight session with falls of over 1%.



The South African rand&nbsp;ZAR=&nbsp;edged 0.1% higher against a weaker dollar, after a nearly 2% jump in the previous session when President Cyril Ramaphosa was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3390L1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">re-elected</a>&nbsp;as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.



Russia&#8217;s rouble&nbsp;RUBUTSTN=MCX&nbsp;slumped to a more than seven-month low against the dollar, extending&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33A0E6&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hefty losses</a>&nbsp;from the previous session on fears over the possible impact of sanctions on oil and gas.



In Turkey, data showed the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AAPN0RZGKP&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consumer confidence</a>&nbsp;index fell 1.3% to 75.6 points in December, ending a five-month rising streak from a record low of 63.4 in June. The lira&nbsp;TRY=&nbsp;was flat.



Ghana on Monday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3391P9&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suspended payments</a>&nbsp;on most of its external debt, effectively defaulting as it country struggles to plug its cavernous balance of payments deficit.



For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh</a>



For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX</a>



For TOP NEWS across emerging markets <a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ARR:5877&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

World map with charts and graphs as symbols of global finance

Stocks hit 3-week low on surprise BOJ policy tweak, China COVID woes

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-422003" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/677A7560.jpg 1800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>A mother lays beside her malnourished child, who is receiving oxygen in the Benadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. REUTERS/Feisal Omar</figcaption></figure>



MOGADISHU, Dec 14 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;In October, Nadifa Abdi Isak brought her malnourished daughters to hospital in Mogadishu. That day, a nurse said, 42 other children had already been checked into the emergency unit, ravaged by hunger. There were 57 the day before that.



Staff at the Benadir maternity and paediatric hospital said admissions of malnourished children have more than doubled their patient numbers over the past year. They are now treating over 1,000 emergency cases each month.



Half a million children&#8217;s lives are at risk from a looming famine in Somalia, according to the United Nations – that&#8217;s more than in any country worldwide this century.



Across Africa, from east to west, people are experiencing a food crisis that is bigger and more complex than the continent has ever seen, say diplomats and humanitarian workers.



One in five Africans – a record 278 million people – were already facing hunger in 2021, according to data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It says the situation has worsened.



The number of East Africans experiencing acute food insecurity – when a lack of food puts lives or livelihoods in immediate danger – has spiked by 60% in just the last year, and by nearly 40% in West Africa, according to the World Food Programme&nbsp;(WFP).



Conflict and climate change are the long-term causes. Heavy debt burdens following the COVID-19 pandemic, rising prices and war in Ukraine have made things much worse as European aid has been sucked away, data and testimony from more than a dozen experts, donors, diplomats, medical staff and men and women in farms and marketplaces across nearly a dozen countries in Africa and beyond shows.



Benadir Hospital is coping, said Dr. Aweis Olow, head of its paediatric department. But referrals from other clinics are accelerating: &#8220;Without a lot of help from the rest of the world, the situation will be out of control.&#8221;



Here, alongside Isak&#8217;s story,&nbsp;are five reasons Africa is suffering from the worst food crisis ever recorded:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-climate-change">1. CLIMATE CHANGE</h2>



East Africa has missed four consecutive rainy seasons, the worst drought in 40 years, Michael Dunford, the WFP&#8217;s East Africa director said.



&#8220;The situation has never been as bad from a regional perspective as it is today,&#8221; he told Reuters.



African countries account for only around 3% of the global emissions responsible for climate change, but suffer more than any other region from its impact.



Of the 20 nations ranked as most vulnerable to climate change, all but four are African, according to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, which measures countries&#8217; vulnerability.



Some 22 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia face high levels of acute food insecurity due solely to the drought, a number projected to rise to up to 26 million by February if the rains again fail, the WFP said.



The lack of rainfall has caused crops to fail. In northern Kenya, pastoralists dig deeper and deeper in search of water for their livestock. Traditional Maasai herders, whose culture revolves around their cows, face the choice of selling them or watching them die.



On the other side of the continent, parts of West Africa have been hit by flooding after the most intense rainfall in 30 years. By mid-October, 5 million people and 1 million hectares of farmland were affected, according to the WFP.



In Chad, over 19,000 head of livestock were swept away after rivers broke their banks, and in neighbouring Nigeria, flooding has hit 29 of the 36 states.



In October in Benue state, part of Nigeria&#8217;s agricultural heartland, farmer Abraham Hon looked out over water stretching to the horizon, covering some 20 hectares of his ruined rice fields.



&#8220;You have drought in some places, then you have floods in some places,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That is a real shift.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;SAVING OUR CHILDREN&#8221;</h2>



Isak&#8217;s hometown, Dinsoor, is about 370 km (230 miles) from the capital in Somalia&#8217;s Bay region. In June, she and her husband and children set out on foot, hoping to escape drought. The journey to Mogadishu took 12 days.



They brought their savings of around $15, and some milk and food.



They walked. &#8220;We fled in the hope of saving our children,&#8221; she said, seated on a hospital bed with her two girls – Nasib, 4, and Fardawsa, 3 – and an infant on her back.



A day into the journey, they were ambushed by bandits. The robbers took their money and food, but spared their lives. They kept walking. A stranger gave the children a lift on his donkey cart.



After four days they reached the regional capital, Baidoa, but couldn&#8217;t find help there. Someone gave them a lift to Mogadishu. There, they found a spot on government land and built a shelter with other displaced people.



Mohamud Abdi Ahmed, an official for the Garasbaley district where the family set up camp, said there were 50,000 displaced families there.



&#8220;Sometimes it&#8217;s difficult to count them, because more arrive every minute.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2: CONFLICT IN AFRICA</h2>



Conflict has long been a driver of hunger. War forces civilians from their homes, livelihoods, farms and food sources. It also makes it dangerous to deliver assistance.



The number of displaced people in Africa has tripled over the past decade to a record 36 million in 2022, according to U.N. data. That represents almost half the displaced people in the world. Most were displaced internally within their own countries by conflict.



Conflicts are worsening across the continent, according to the Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data Project (ACLED), a crisis monitoring group.



In 2016, it recorded 3,682 &#8220;battles&#8221; between armed groups in Africa. There were 7,418 in 2021.



Isak&#8217;s country, Somalia, has been unstable since a civil war in the early 1990s and today is a patchwork of clan strongholds, government-controlled areas and zones in the grip of al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked militant group fighting to impose its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.



A U.S. non-profit, Fund for Peace, ranks global states by how fragile they are. In 2022, 15 African nations occupied the top 20 slots of its rankings.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SUFFOCATION</h2>



Whenever Isak had food, her youngest children were given top priority.



&#8220;The children were getting weaker for months,&#8221; she said. She and other mothers say malnourished children swell up and their skin thins. They bruise easily.



Just a week after the family arrived in Mogadishu in June, two of Isak&#8217;s daughters &#8211; 6-year-old Muna and 7-year-old Hamdi &#8211; fell ill one after another.



They were weak and ran fevers, their legs bowed and limbs swelled. They began to cough and struggled to breathe.



People who don&#8217;t get enough minerals or vitamins can develop iron-deficiency anaemia, which means they do not have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to tissues throughout the body.



So as children starve, their bodies slowly suffocate.



Dr Olow said such cases are becoming commonplace. Children arriving at Benadir Hospital receive oxygen, emergency feeding and, if needed, blood transfusions. Just 3% die, Olow said.



By the time Isak brought Muna and Hamdi for treatment, it was too late.



&#8220;The doctors could not help them, because they were about to die when we reached the hospital,&#8221; Isak said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. CONFLICT IN EUROPE</h2>



Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine in February, which Moscow calls a &#8220;special military operation,&#8221; added to Africa&#8217;s problems.



The crisis distracted wealthy governments&#8217; humanitarian agencies for the first half of this year, said a senior Western government official involved in humanitarian response in Africa, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.



&#8220;When Ukraine happened, it sucked all the oxygen out of the room,&#8221; he said.



As the food crisis deepened earlier this year, the African Development Bank set up an emergency food production fund of $1.5 billion aimed at helping African farmers produce 38 million tonnes of wheat, corn, rice and soybeans.



But needs across Africa&#8217;s crises have risen by 13% over the past year alone, the data shows. While total donor funding over that time has increased 12%, it currently meets just half of requirements.



European countries in particular have cut aid in Africa. European governments contributed 21% of humanitarian relief aid to African countries in 2022, down 16 percentage points since 2018.



Some countries – such as the United States – have since boosted humanitarian assistance budgets, but the shortfalls remain, a Reuters analysis of U.N. data shows.



Four of the five African countries receiving the most humanitarian funding under the 2022 aid appeal are located in or border the drought-stricken Horn of Africa region.



That&#8217;s leading to some tough choices.



The WFP has, in some cases, been forced to reduce rations, said Ollo Sib, a senior researcher for the agency in West Africa.



&#8220;We can keep people alive, but we don&#8217;t just want to keep people alive,&#8221; he said.



Chad, for example, currently hosts 577,000 refugees from other countries – the largest group in West Africa. Since 2020, conflict there has also more than doubled the number of internally displaced Chadians to around 381,000.



Faced with overwhelming needs, the WFP has already begun reducing rations for some refugees. And it told Reuters that, without more funding soon, it could be forced to suspend food assistance for all but the 10% of refugees considered the most vulnerable.



Moscow&#8217;s Ukraine campaign also throttled grain exports.



The U.N. and Turkey brokered a deal in July to unblock three Black Sea ports. Under that initiative, 615 vessels left Ukrainian ports between Aug. 1 and Dec. 13 carrying over 13.8 million tonnes of corn, wheat, rapeseed and sunflower oil.



Just 11 ships were destined for sub-Saharan Africa, however.



&#8220;It&#8217;s making a contribution. But there is no silver bullet,&#8221; said the WFP&#8217;s Dunford.



Disruptions caused by that war have also provoked a fertiliser shortage. Where stocks are available, prices have risen beyond the means of many farmers. The result will be smaller harvests next year: In West Africa, the WFP estimates cereal production could fall 20%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;THEY DON&#8217;T KNOW THEY&#8217;RE DEAD&#8221;</h2>



The Benadir hospital can&#8217;t always help.



&#8220;Sometimes mothers bring us dead children,&#8221; said Farhia Moahmud Jama, head nurse at the paediatric emergency unit. &#8220;And they don&#8217;t know they&#8217;re dead.&#8221;



Weakened by hunger, camp residents are vulnerable to disease and people are dying due to a lack of food, said Nadifa Hussein Mohamed, who managed the camp where Isak&#8217;s family initially stayed.



&#8220;Maybe the whole world is hungry and donors are bankrupt, I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But we&#8217;re calling out for help, and we do not see relief.&#8221;



Isak and her husband said some nights, armed men threaten and beat the residents: &#8220;They want to sell the land.&#8221;



Ahmed, the district official, said security around the camps was tight.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. DEBT</h2>



COVID-19 left Africa facing the strongest economic headwinds in years, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



After years of borrowing, countries are struggling to service their debts. According to the IMF, 19 of sub-Saharan Africa&#8217;s 35 low-income countries are in debt distress – where a government is unable to fulfil its financial obligations and debt restructuring is required – or at high risk of it.



Ghana is an example. The country of 32 million people owed 476 billion cedis – or around $42 billion in September – over $1,300 per person. In July, the government turned to the IMF for relief. In December, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said debt had topped 100% of Ghana&#8217;s Gross Domestic Product.



Ghana&#8217;s currency, the cedi, is Africa&#8217;s weakest. At its lowest level this year, in November, it sank by 59% against the dollar, straining the country&#8217;s ability to pay for imports. Shopkeepers shut their doors temporarily in October in protest.



In October, Ghana&#8217;s inflation rate hit a new 21-year high of 40.4%, driven in large part by higher food costs. Cereal prices have gone up over 51%. Dairy and eggs by nearly 59%.



Globally, prices of cereals, dairy, meat, vegetable oils and sugar climbed over 23% in 2021, the fastest in more than a decade, according to an index from the FAO.



Food expenses constitute 40% of households&#8217; consumer spending in sub-Saharan Africa – the highest share in the world, according to the IMF.



For Ghanaian Evelyn Lartey, a trip to market in the capital Accra has become a race.



&#8220;The maths you use one day expires the next, and you don&#8217;t know what are the real prices,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You just have to pay what you&#8217;re told or else keep walking.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">HEART PAIN</h2>



On Wednesday Oct. 19, months after Muna and Hamdi&#8217;s deaths, two of Isak&#8217;s other daughters – Nasib and Fardawsa – could not sleep.



&#8220;They were complaining of heart pain. It was 2 a.m.,&#8221; she said.



They set off for the hospital. There were few vehicles on the road, and none stopped when they tried to wave them down, so Isak and her husband carried the children for four km.



A normal three-year-old child has between 11 and 13.7 grams of haemoglobin, the iron-rich protein that carries oxygen around the body, per decilitre of blood.



Doctors told Isak that Fardawsa&#8217;s blood contained 1 gram of haemoglobin per decilitre. She needed a blood transfusion.



The medics couldn&#8217;t find a vein on her hands, so they transfused the blood through a vein in her head.



&#8220;It&#8217;s not yet her time to die,&#8221; her mother said, relieved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5. GOVERNMENTS</h2>



African governments have done little to prevent food crises from recurring.



In a move to boost production, reduce import reliance and improve food security, leaders in 2003 pledged to commit at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture and rural development within five years.



By 2021, nearly two decades later, just two countries in sub-Saharan Africa – Mali and Zimbabwe – met that target.



Instead, an analysis of 39 African countries by UK charity Oxfam found, spending on agriculture fell as a share of budgets between 2019 and 2021.



Agriculture makes up nearly 20% of Africa&#8217;s GDP and more than half of Africans work in the sector, according to the World Bank. Most of this is low-productivity subsistence farming, and the region is a net importer of staples including wheat, palm oil and rice, the FAO says.



Productivity and crop yields have increased, but they are still the lowest in the world and the FAO says they come nowhere close to keeping up with the continent&#8217;s growing population, which the U.N. forecasts will more than triple to 4.3 billion by the end of the century.



So agricultural production per capita is falling, according to the FAO.



Self-sufficiency for major food commodities is decreasing. Without action, the World Bank says Africa&#8217;s food import bill, which stood at $43 billion in 2019, could rise to $110 billion in 2025.



&#8220;We have 65% of the world&#8217;s available arable land. We have to wake up,&#8221; Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, told Reuters. &#8220;For me, the bare minimum is that Africa is able to feed itself.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;STRENGTH, BUT NO WORK&#8221;</h2>



Nasib and Fardawsa spent a week in the hospital, receiving blood transfusions, medicine and nutritional biscuits. They recovered, but then Isak&#8217;s four-month-old, Farhan, needed care.



He received an emergency transfusion and treatment. The doctor prescribed syrups and supplementary iron tablets that the family cannot afford.



&#8220;I don&#8217;t have any money,&#8221; she said.



In search of aid and security, in November the family moved onto an abandoned military camp closer to the city centre.



They are no longer harassed, but attacks by Islamist militants periodically send the city into lock-down. Isak&#8217;s husband, Mohamed Ibrahim, hoped he could earn money for food in town, working as a porter.



&#8220;I have strength but no work. I have a wooden wheelbarrow,&#8221; he said. But most people use the services of tuk-tuks instead.



After months on the move – from her village to the city, from camp to camp, and hospital to hospital – Isak is running out of energy. She believes she herself and two other children are now also anaemic.



&#8220;If he gets a dollar or two, this is not even enough for food for the children.&#8221;



(Additional reporting by Ayenat Mersie and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Cooper Inveen in Accra, Libby George and Abraham Achirga in Lagos, Loucoumane Coulibaly in Abidjan and Nancy Lapid in New YorkEdited by Sara Ledwith, Jon McClure and Daniel Flynn)

677A7560

Africa’s food crisis is the biggest yet – five reasons why

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="574" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-820x574.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421988" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-820x574.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-300x210.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-129x90.jpg 129w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-768x538.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-1536x1075.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WREHPT277RPARNPRNW5K6TZFDI-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about inflation at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;When President Joe Biden speaks to African leaders in Washington on Wednesday, expect to hear about support for democracy, economic development and new financial commitments for a region that in recent years has taken a backseat to other U.S. priorities.



But there will be another, likely unspoken message: The United States is a better partner for Africa than China.



Delegations from 49 countries and the African Union, including 45 African national leaders, are attending the three-day summit, which began on Tuesday, the first of its kind since 2014, where Washington will also tout its support for food security and climate change.



It&#8217;s part of a renewed push to boost ties with a continent where U.S. interests have been challenged by China&#8217;s security ambitions and trade, investment and lending drives. By contrast, Beijing has held its own high-level meetings with Africa every three years for more than two decades.



While Sino-U.S. competition is a clear backdrop, U.S. officials have been reluctant to frame the gathering as a battle for influence. Washington has toned down its criticism of Beijing&#8217;s lending practices and infrastructure projects amid calls from some African leaders for more U.S. leadership.



To that end, Biden is expected to announce his support for the African Union&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32Z1IZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">joining the G20 group</a>&nbsp;of the world&#8217;s largest economies as a permanent member.



U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3331Y2&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told African counterparts</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday she wants to improve the continent&#8217;s U.S. trade preferences program, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N33228J&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;bring resources to the table&#8221;</a>&nbsp;and commit $55 billion to Africa over the next three years.



&#8220;We are not looking for a relationship that is transactional, that&#8217;s extractive, that is burdensome, or leaves various countries in a more fragile, poor state after a deal is done,&#8221; State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday, skirting mention of China but using language that mirrored Washington&#8217;s critique of its behavior in Africa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-china-s-growing-sway">CHINA&#8217;S GROWING SWAY</h2>



China&#8217;s economic influence in Africa is undeniable.



According to a Eurasia Group analysis, in 2021 China-Africa trade, at $254 billion, greatly outstripped U.S.-Africa trade, which stood at $64.3 billion. Those figures are up from $12 billion and $21 billion, respectively, in 2002. China has also become an important creditor by offering loans with less stringent conditions than Western lenders.



That has led to Western charges that China has mired African countries in debt. Beijing&#8217;s ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, rejected the idea ahead of the summit, citing a report that African countries owe three times more debt to Western institutions, while noting that Chinese-built&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3321T3&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hospitals, highways, airports and stadiums</a>&nbsp;are &#8220;everywhere&#8221; in Africa.



China remains the region&#8217;s largest bilateral investor, but its new loan commitments to Africa have declined in recent years as pressure has built up both inside and outside China for its infrastructure investments to be more sustainable.



Offering loans to Africa on the same scale as China has not been a viable option for the United States. Instead, U.S. officials stress an approach focused on facilitating private investment.



Don Graves, deputy secretary of commerce, said this week that U.S. companies brought leading technologies and standards &#8220;as opposed to bringing in tens of thousands of our own workers,&#8221; thinly veiled criticism of long-standing practices by Chinese companies that have angered Africans.



Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday the United States would announce investments for exchange programs for African students, and to support African entrepreneurs and small businesses.



It&#8217;s not all about economic sway &#8211; Washington has been alarmed by China&#8217;s efforts to establish a military foothold on including on the Atlantic coast in Equatorial Guinea.



For their part, many African leaders reject the idea that they need to choose between the United States and China.



&#8220;The fact that both countries have different levels of relations with African countries makes them equally important for Africa&#8217;s development,&#8221; Ethiopia&#8217;s U.N. ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie Amde, told Reuters. &#8220;However, it should be known each African country has the agency to determine their respective relationship and best interest.&#8221;



Sub-Sarahan Africa&#8217;s largest lenders (USD)<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3YoURUL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/3YoURUL</a>



Chinese loan commitments to African countries<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3cIjPLS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/3cIjPLS</a>



(Additional reporting Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Don Durfee and Leslie Adler)

FILE PHOTO: Biden speaks about inflation at the White House in Washington

China an unspoken focus as Biden woos African leaders

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418482" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Biden&#8217;s trade policy agenda on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 31, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The duty-free access for nearly 40 African countries in a 22-year-old U.S. trade program is no longer enough to boost their development and a focus on improving investment is needed, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Tuesday.



Tai, after a meeting with African counterparts at the start of a Sub-Saharan African leaders summit in Washington, said the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) needs improving to foster more equitable and sustainable growth.



Speaking at a U.S. Export-Import Bank conference, Tai said ministers told her they needed more investment in addition to market access.



&#8220;We want you to work with us on fostering&#8230;economic environments that are conducive to greater confidence for investors,&#8221; Tai said was message from ministers.



Earlier, Tai told ministers she wanted to conduct an &#8220;honest assessment&#8221; of AGOA, which has underpinned U.S.-Africa trade for more than two decades.



AGOA, first enacted in 2000 to boost growth, development and governance reforms in Africa, is due to expire on Sept. 30, 2025. The program also requires steps such as such as eliminating barriers to U.S. trade and investment.



Tai said she was &#8220;interested in discussing today ways in which we can improve AGOA – including how we can increase the utilization rates, particularly among smaller and less-developed countries, as well as ensure that the program’s benefits fully reach all segments of society.&#8221;



Research from the Brookings Institution last year showed that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2021/11/15/how-the-biden-administration-can-make-agoa-more-effective/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">only about half of AGOA-eligible countries</a>&nbsp;had strategies in place to make full use of their benefits under the program.



The world was &#8220;very different&#8221; from AGOA&#8217;s initial years, Tai said, with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine exposing the fragility of supply chains, along with a worsening climate crisis.



AGOA offered promise as a &#8220;stepping stone to address regional and global challenges,&#8221; especially with Africa&#8217;s young and entrepreneurial population, she said.



&#8220;The future is Africa, and engaging with this continent is the key to prosperity for all of us,&#8221; Tai added.



Among the biggest beneficiaries of AGOA are oil exporters Nigeria and Angola, as well as the region&#8217;s largest economy, South Africa.



Kenya, which depends on AGOA for its growing apparel exports to the United States, has engaged in a non-tariff trade and investment dialogue with Washington, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YW1RJ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">may lead</a>&nbsp;to more comprehensive trade negotiations.



At an event on Monday, Tai said the United States would also sign a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3321D4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">memorandum of understanding</a>&nbsp;with the 55-state African Continental Free Trade Area to explore work on the next phases of the U.S.-African trade relationship.



(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

NQGMTXTPZRNDPKJO4S6HOJLM6I

U.S. trade chief Tai says African trade program needs to foster more investment

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="518" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ-820x518.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421972" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ-820x518.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ-300x189.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ-143x90.jpg 143w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ-768x485.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Customers are seen at an outlet of South Africa&#8217;s MTN Group at the Mall of the South in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Dec 13 (Reuters) &#8211; MTN South Africa and MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with a consortium, have landed a 45,000 kilometre subsea cable in South Africa, part of plans to build a subsea network to connect African countries to Europe and the Middle East.



Africa&#8217;s big economies have a fast growing population of internet users, with growth fuelled by rapidly expanding mobile broadband networks and affordable smartphones.



But the continent still lags behind the rest of the world in internet connectivity.



&#8220;Data traffic across African markets is expected to grow between four and five fold over the next 5 years, so we need infrastructure and capacity to meet that level of growth and demand,&#8221; MTN Group Chief Executive Ralph Mupita said in a statement.



The subsea cable project, called 2Africa which will go live in 2023, aims to build subsea cable infrastructure which will directly connect countries around the African coast to Europe and the Middle East.



MTN subsidiary MTN GlobalConnect said the landing for the cable was in Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, in the Western Cape province of South Africa and the subsea cable system will support the western and eastern sides of Africa once complete in 2023 and 2024 respectively.



Subsea cables are the backbone of the internet, carrying 99% of the world&#8217;s data traffic.



The consortium includes MTN GlobalConnect, China Mobile International, Meta, French telecoms company Orange SA , Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC and Saudi Arabia&#8217;s center3. 



(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Jane Merriman)

HMQQXQQ5CBKVHDRM6CDBAV35IQ

MTN lands subsea cable in South Africa to boost Africa’s connectivity

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421898" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>DRC minister of mines Antoinette N&#8217;Samba Kalambayi speaks during African Mining Indaba 2022, in Cape Town, South Africa, May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Shelley Christians/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Dec 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Mining companies and governments in Africa are calling for stronger trade ties with the United States after a new climate law set out incentives for U.S. carmakers sourcing battery materials from trade partners.



The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been criticised by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32V0FK&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">European Union</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32R24U&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">South Korea</a>, who say it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3010MC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">could hurt</a>&nbsp;their car industries.



It could also negatively impact African nations that produce battery materials.



The United States has a Free Trade Agreement in place with only one African country, Morocco. Yet the continent is a key copper producer and Democratic Republic of Congo produces most of the world&#8217;s cobalt.



Battery materials and trade are set to be a focus at next week&#8217;s U.S.-Africa Leaders&#8217; Summit in Washington where President Joe Biden will meet presidents of African countries including Congo.



&#8220;The IRA was intended to push out China, and what it&#8217;s ended up doing is pushing out the DRC, and the EU, and South Korea,&#8221; said Indigo Ellis, managing director at consultancy Africa Matters Limited, who will attend the Dec. 13-15 summit.



Under IRA, U.S. carmakers will get tax credits if they source at least 40% of battery materials domestically or from American free-trade partners. This risks carmakers replacing Congolese cobalt with Australian, Canadian, Moroccan, or U.S. cobalt.



Congo produced 74% of the world&#8217;s mined cobalt last year while the next-biggest single producer, Australia, was responsible for just 3%, according to a Cobalt Institute&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cobaltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/FINAL_Cobalt-Market-Report-2021_Cobalt-Institute-3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>.



An adviser to Congo&#8217;s President Felix Tshisekedi said a USA-DRC Free Trade Agreement &#8220;is an option for the medium to long-term, but in the short term other avenues will be explored&#8221;.



A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said &#8220;we look forward to discussing ways to strengthen and deepen our trade and investment ties with our partners throughout Africa&#8221; during the summit.



The IRA aims to boost U.S. mining and processing, which some companies fear could come at the expense of value-added processing in Africa.



&#8220;The West needs to work with us to build some value-add,&#8221; said George Roach, CEO of Premier African Minerals&nbsp;PREM.L, which has a lithium project in Zimbabwe.



His is one of many projects across sub-Saharan Africa aiming to produce battery materials like lithium, nickel and graphite.



Joe Walsh, managing director at Australia-listed Lepidico&nbsp;LPD.AX, which is building a lithium mine in Namibia and chemical plant in Abu Dhabi, said the IRA makes the United States a more attractive location for a planned second plant.



&#8220;The U.S. is not going to be able to incentivise the development of a significant battery raw material production base of its own without ruffling a few feathers along the way.&#8221;



(Reporting by Helen Reid and Nelson Banya, Additional Reporting by Sonia Rolley in Paris, Nuzulack Dausen in Dar es Salaam, Ernest Scheyder in Houston, Daphne Psaledakis in Washington DC, Chris Mfula in Lusaka, Manuel Mucari in Maputo, Nyasha Nyaungwa in Windhoek, Editing by Pratima Desai and David Evans)

3XGQ5LYPIBLPNPYBAQZJSAD3HQ

U.S. bid for battery metals has Africa blind spot

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421810" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>The Federal Reserve building is seen before the Federal Reserve board is expected to signal plans to raise interest rates in March as it focuses on fighting inflation in Washington, U.S., January 26, 2022. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The pace and scale of rate hikes delivered by central banks in November picked up speed again as policy makers around the globe battle decade high inflation.



Central banks overseeing six of the 10 most heavily traded currencies delivered 350 basis points (bps) of rate hikes between them last month.



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32K32B&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. Federal Reserve</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ABEL3MEI33&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bank of England</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N31W006&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reserve Bank of Australia</a>, Norway&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N31Z3H5&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Norges Bank</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32K1YB&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sweden&#8217;s Riksbank</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32I2JS&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reserve Bank of New Zealand</a>&nbsp;all raised interest rates in November.



The European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan did not hold rate setting meetings in November.



The latest moves have brought total rate hikes in 2022 from G10 central banks to 2,400 bps.



&#8220;Interest rates will continue to rise,&#8221; said Alexandra Dimitrijvic at S&amp;P Global Ratings, looking ahead to 2023. &#8220;Central banks&#8217; determination to bring down inflation suggests that policy rates need to go higher still.&#8221;



Global financial markets have been on a roller coaster in recent weeks as investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N32J36J&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try to gauge how fast and how far</a>&nbsp;the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks are set to raise rates to combat inflationary pressures, while fears over a slowdown in global growth are spreading.



Some nascent signs that inflation could be slowing in the United States have brought cheer to markets in recent days, with Fed officials scheduled to meet on Dec. 13 and 14.



On Wednesday, Fed Chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32Q2D1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jerome Powell said</a>&nbsp;the U.S. central bank could scale back the pace of its rate increases &#8220;as soon as December&#8221;.



Data from emerging market central banks showed a similar pattern. Eight out of 18 central banks delivered a total 400 bps of rate hikes in November &#8211; up from 325 bps in October, but some way off the 800-plus bps monthly tallies in both June and July.



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32D0H0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Indonesia</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N32I1UN&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">South Korea</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32Q26A&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mexico</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32Q0EQ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thailand</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3251D9&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Malaysia</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AP9N30N00V&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Philippines</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N32H107&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Israel</a>&nbsp;and South Africa all hiked rates in November, showing the wave of policy tightening shift towards Asia and away from Latin America and emerging Europe, where the cycle is nearing its end.



&#8220;With the exception of a few countries, we are past the most intensive phase of the rate hike cycle,&#8221; said Nafez Zouk at Aviva Investors.



Outlier&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32K32B&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Turkey</a>, where President Tayyip Erdogan is pushing for lower interest rates, delivered another 150 bps benchmark cut to bring rates down to single digits, despite inflation running at above 80%.



Not all emerging market central banks in the sample had rate setting meetings last month.



Emerging market central banks have raised interest rates by a total of 7,165 bps year-to-date, more than double the 2,745 bps for the whole of 2021, calculations show.



Developed markets interest rates<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3iwnLBQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/3iwnLBQ</a>



Emerging markets interest rates<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3Uqdoww" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/3Uqdoww</a>



(Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Vincent Flasseur in London Editing by Mark Potter)

5DBN3Y3KWBL4JGW3IK7S5ILVJA

Global central banks extend rate hike push in November

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417818" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1240479080-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Situmbeko Musokotwane, Zambia&#8217;s finance minister, during an interview at his office in Lusaka, Zambia, on Thursday, May 5, 2022. China should head the creditors committee being formed to renegotiate Zambias $17.3 billion of foreign debt because that will help accelerate the resolution process, Musokotwane said. Photographer: Zinyange Auntony/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Nov 30 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Zambia is pushing hard to complete the restructuring of nearly $15 billion of external debt in the first quarter of 2023 and is &#8220;in active engagement&#8221; with its largest bilateral creditor China, Zambia&#8217;s finance minister said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference.



Zambia defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020 and the current government, which took power last year, has been on a quest to restructure its loans and rebuild an economy ravaged by mismanagement under previous administrations and COVID-19.



In August, Zambia won International Monetary Fund (IMF) approval for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N30734Z&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1.3 billion, three-year loan</a>&nbsp;programme to help it restructure debts which the government said stood&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N311169&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at $14.87 billion</a>&nbsp;at the end of June 2022.



Zambia&#8217;s Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane told Reuters that China had sought clarification from the Zambian government and the IMF on their debt agreement, he said.



&#8220;The Chinese&#8230; are asking (for) a number of clarifications, which us and the IMF are providing them,&#8221; Musokotwane said.



China wants more clarity on the IMF assumptions on which the loan programme is based, he said, since these are meant to form the basis of the restructuring negotiations between Zambia and all its creditors.



Zambia&#8217;s much-delayed debt restructuring is seen by analysts as a test case for what are expected to be a spate of defaults in poorer countries that have borrowed heavily not only in the capital markets but also from countries including China.



At the end of 2021, Chinese creditors accounted for almost $6 billion of Zambia&#8217;s external debt, which was then $17.27 billion.



The Export-Import Bank of China is representing all Chinese creditors in their restructuring negotiations with Zambia, Musokotwane said. These include commercial banks, the Industrial &amp; Commercial Bank of China&nbsp;601398.SS, Jiangxi Bank&nbsp;1916.HK&nbsp;and China Minsheng Bank&nbsp;600016.SS.



China&#8217;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Musokotwane added that private creditors were cooperating well in debt relief discussions and that there had been a bondholder meeting this week.



Zambia&#8217;s government said in October it needs a present value&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3183N3&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debt reduction by 2027 of $6.3 billion</a>, or 49% of the debt being restructured, to meet IMF targets, a level some international bondholders have previously said would be unacceptable.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-copper-mining">COPPER MINING</h2>



Musokotwane also said he hoped to make an announcement by the first quarter of next year about potential new investors in Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mines (MCM).



&#8220;We are hoping that by first quarter of next year we should be there with some of them. And also some of the new investments that are coming from the U.S. and other places,&#8221; he said.



Zambia&#8217;s previous government put KCM into liquidation in 2019, triggering a legal dispute with its parent company, Vedanta Resources, that is now being settled out of court.



Zambia&#8217;s state-owned mining company ZCCM Investments Holdings&nbsp;ZCCM.LZ&nbsp;took over MCM in 2021 from commodities giant Glencore&nbsp;GLEN.L, which mothballed its operations in 2020 due to weak copper prices.



The government is aiming to treble copper production to 3 million tonnes per year within the next decade in Africa&#8217;s second largest producer of the mineral.



To view the Reuters NEXT conference live on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, please click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/reuters-next/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.



(Reporting by Rachel Savage and Bhargav Acharya, Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in HarareEditing by Alexander Winning and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Zambian Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane Interview

Zambia on track for debt restructuring next quarter -finance minister

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="546" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-820x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421441" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-820x546.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RHMMHOWJPBPR7BGBBHS2X2D2FI-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: A truck is seen at a grain terminal during barley harvesting in Ukraine on June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Tkachenko/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, Nov 18 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A U.N. official on Friday said she hoped that a shipment of Russian fertiliser exports to Malawi would lead to a further easing of a 300,000 tonne backlog in European ports, as the global body works to address Russian concerns that have threatened a Black Sea grains export deal.



A deal aimed at addressing global food shortages by helping Ukraine export its agricultural products from Black Sea ports was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32D1ZT&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extended</a>&nbsp;for four months on Thursday, though Russia said its demands were yet to be addressed.



&#8220;We are really very pleased on the extension of the Black Sea grains initiative&#8230;.,&#8221; Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) told a Geneva press briefing. &#8220;But we have said very clearly that we are still not where we want to be, there is still work to be done and especially on fertilisers.&#8221;



Moscow won guarantees for its own grain and fertiliser exports as part of the July agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. But it has complained that its shipments, though not directly targeted, are constrained by sanctions.



Grynspan, who is in charge of the fertiliser negotiations, said that she hoped a shipment set to sail from the Netherlands on Nov. 21 to Malawi via Mozambique would serve as a model for future exports and that work was going on for another humanitarian cargo to be sent to West Africa.



In the same briefing, she voiced optimism that Russia and Ukraine could agree to the terms for resuming exports of Russian&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AG8N2NC017&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ammonia</a>&nbsp;via a pipeline to the Black Sea. The export of ammonia, a key ingredient in fertiliser, was not part of Thursday&#8217;s renewal.



Grynspan also said that the U.N. would be aiming for a longer renewal period of the Black Sea Grains deal, beyond the 120 days agreed on Thursday.



(Reporting by Emma Farge and Paul Carrel, Editing by William Maclean)

FILE PHOTO: A truck is seen at a grain terminal during barley harvesting in Ukraine

UN plans further Russian fertiliser exports to Africa, upbeat on ammonia pipeline

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="563" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-820x563.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421423" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-820x563.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-300x206.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-131x90.jpg 131w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-1536x1055.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/W5FENC6PXZPHBFLYX4OIVNGPPM-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: A man from the Maasai pastoralist community affected by the worsening drought due to the failed rainy season, attends to an emaciated cow at a livestock market in Ilbisil settlement of Kajiado, Kenya October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Nov 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation said on Thursday it was committing $7 billion to Africa over the next four years, as Bill Gates warned that the Ukraine crisis was reducing the amount of aid flowing to the continent.



The Foundation&#8217;s pledge, which is up 40% on the amount spent during the previous four years, will target projects tackling hunger, disease, poverty and gender inequality.&nbsp;Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s most populous country, will take the biggest share.



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XG20K&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanitarian groups in Africa</a>&nbsp;are grappling with the diversion of funding away towards Ukraine, and&nbsp;as Russia&#8217;s invasion increases&nbsp;goods prices globally, impacting aid operations.



&#8220;The European budgets are deeply affected by the Ukraine war and so right now the trend for aid is not to go up,&#8221; the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp&nbsp;MSFT.O&nbsp;told journalists at the University of Nairobi during a visit to Kenya.



&#8220;If you take all aid (into Africa) including all climate aid &#8211; we&#8217;ll have a few years where it’ll probably go down.&#8221;



Kenya and much of East Africa is suffering its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WQ5TX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">worst drought in four decades</a>.



Drought, compounded by conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic, has pushed more than 10 million people in the region &#8220;to the very brink of a hunger crisis&#8221;, the U.S.-based Christian relief group World Vision said this week. The United Nations says it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N31D43Z&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expects famine to be declared</a>&nbsp;in parts of Somalia this year.



Following a meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto, Gates said on Wednesday that the Foundation would establish a regional office in Nairobi.



&#8220;Our foundation will continue to support solutions in health, agriculture, and other critical areas—and the systems to get them out of the labs and to the people who need them,&#8221; Gates, who runs the foundation with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, said in a statement.



The Foundation in 2021 gave charitable support of $6.7 billion and last week&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3206GM&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pledged</a>&nbsp;$1.4 billion to help the world&#8217;s smallholder farmers cope with climate change.



Read more:



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3202IZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Drought has killed 205 Kenyan elephants in 10 months, minister says</a>



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N30X4HX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Drought is killing Kenya&#8217;s endangered wildlife</a>



<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32B4OG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Donors must act now to save East Africa from famine, IRC says</a>



INSIGHT-Ukraine war hits Africa&#8217;s most vulnerable as aid costs spike<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AP:4295907168&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Donors must act now to save East Africa from famine, IRC says<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N32B4OG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Drought has killed 205 Kenyan elephants in 10 months, minister says<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3202IZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Drought is killing Kenya&#8217;s endangered wildlife<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N30X4HX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Malnourished kids crowd hospital as Ethiopia hit by worst drought in 40 years<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WQ5TX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Lisa Shumaker)

FILE PHOTO: Drought in Kenya forces Maasai herders to sell emaciated cattle in Kajiado

Gates Foundation pledges $7 billion for Africa as Ukraine war diverts donor cash

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="612" height="357" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400669" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1.jpg 612w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istockphoto-1030878162-612x612-1-300x175.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px" /><figcaption>World map with charts and graphs as symbols of global finance</figcaption></figure>



Nov 11 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging market stocks soared 4.8% on Friday, heading for their best week in two years, as China eased some COVID curbs and soft U.S. inflation data cooled bets of another super-sized interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.



Currencies also rallied, with the MSCI&#8217;s emerging markets currencies index&nbsp;.MSIEM00000CUS&nbsp;up 1.6%, led by strong gains in Asian currencies as the dollar stayed weak after data on Thursday showed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ARR:5877&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. inflation cooled more than expected</a>&nbsp;in October.



Bets for a 50 basis points hike from the Fed rose to 70%,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3261FV&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">easing fears</a>&nbsp;of a fifth 75 bps hike of the year in December.



China&#8217;s yuan&nbsp;CNY=&nbsp;jumped 1%, while South Korea&#8217;s won&nbsp;KRW=&nbsp;rallied 2%. South Africa&#8217;s rand&nbsp;ZAR=&nbsp;hit two-month highs, extending gains after jumping more than 2% on Thursday following the U.S. data.



&#8220;It is a good reason, some real hard data to hang on to for adjusting expectations in a slightly more dovish direction,&#8221; said Cristian Maggio, head of portfolio strategy at TD Securities.



The EM currencies index was on course to gain around 2.3% for the week &#8211; its best in seven years.



Adding to optimism was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3270BC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China easing</a>&nbsp;some of its heavy-handed COVID rules.



China&#8217;s stringent COVID curbs have been a global concern as it hit the country&#8217;s economic growth, clouding the outlook for Asian neighbours and some Latin American economies that depend on commodities demand from the world&#8217;s second-largest economy.



Chinese blue-chips&nbsp;.CSI300&nbsp;jumped 2.8%, while Hong Kong&#8217;s benchmark zoomed 7.7% to its best session in eight months.



South Korean&nbsp;.KS11&nbsp;and Taiwanese stocks&nbsp;.TWII&nbsp;added more than 3% each. Elsewhere, South African stocks&nbsp;.JTOPI&nbsp;surged 4.2% to hit their highest since April, while some central European bourses jumped more than 2%.



The broad EM stocks index&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;was seen ending the week around 5.3% higher.



The news offers some much needed relief to investors who were growing increasingly nervous abut a global recession, given China&#8217;s curbs and aggressive central bank tightening by major central banks.



Sitting out Friday&#8217;s rally were the Indian rupee&nbsp;INR=&nbsp;and Turkish lira&nbsp;TRY=.



Rating agency Moody&#8217;s on Friday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N327225&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cut India&#8217;s growth projections</a>&nbsp;for the current and next calendar year due to higher inflation, high interest rates and slowing global growth.



In Turkey, data sets showed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3271ZQ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">industrial production</a>&nbsp;barely expanded in September, while the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AAPN0QOSDW&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">current account deficit widened</a>&nbsp;more than expected.



For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh</a>



For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX</a>



For TOP NEWS across emerging markets&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ARR:5103&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>







(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks rejoice as China eases COVID curbs, U.S. inflation cools

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-421172" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1241314901-1-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>A Yamana Gold Inc. booth at the Prospectors &amp; Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. As China lockdowns rekindle concerns over metals demand, mining leaders on the other side of the world shed masks and rubbed shoulders at one of the industry&#8217;s biggest annual gatherings. Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Nov 8 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Agnico Eagle Mines&nbsp;AEM.TO&nbsp;and Pan American Silver Corp&nbsp;PAAS.TO&nbsp;have clinched a $4.8 billion cash-and-shares deal to buy rival Canadian miner Yamana Gold Inc&nbsp;YRI.TO&nbsp;after it ditched an offer from South Africa&#8217;s Gold Fields&nbsp;GFIJ.J.



Yamana&#8217;s board now unanimously recommends shareholders reject the Gold Fields takeover at a vote on Nov. 21, the company said on Tuesday, a day after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3230DS&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gold Fields&#8217; decision</a>&nbsp;not to match the Agnico-Pan American offer.



Tuesday&#8217;s news ends a fraught few months for Gold Fields executives who battled to convince investors of the merits of the takeover deal announced in May.



The cash component in the Agnico Eagle and Pan American offer gave their bid an edge, analysts said.



Gold Fields did not reply immediately to a request for comment.



The all-shares offer from Gold Fields valued Yamana at $6.7 billion in May, but the suitor&#8217;s shares slumped after the deal was announced, denting the valuation.



At Thursday&#8217;s close the Gold Fields offer was worth a little more than $4 billion.



Under the terms of the original agreement, Yamana will have to pay Gold Fields $300 million for breaking off the deal.



Gold Fields&#8217; Johannesburg-listed shares gained only 0.5% on the news, indicating the market had already priced in the deal&#8217;s collapse. The stock gained 11.3% on Friday when the counter-bid was announced.



Under Agnico Eagle and Pan American&#8217;s joint offer, Yamana shareholders will receive $1.0406 in cash, 0.0376 of an Agnico share and 0.1598 of a Pan American share for each share held.



(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru and Helen Reid in Johannesburg; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and David Goodman)

Economy

Shares on course for fourth week of gains but caution lingers

Deeper ties on Yellen’s mind as U.S begins year of African engagement

Africa’s economic growth to stabilise, inflation seen easing – AfDB

World Bank to vastly expand lending capacity to fight climate change

Stocks steady after recent low, miners boost South Africa

Stocks hit 3-week low on surprise BOJ policy tweak, China COVID woes

Africa’s food crisis is the biggest yet – five reasons why

China an unspoken focus as Biden woos African leaders

U.S. trade chief Tai says African trade program needs to foster more investment

MTN lands subsea cable in South Africa to boost Africa’s connectivity

U.S. bid for battery metals has Africa blind spot

Global central banks extend rate hike push in November

Zambia on track for debt restructuring next quarter -finance minister

UN plans further Russian fertiliser exports to Africa, upbeat on ammonia pipeline

Gates Foundation pledges $7 billion for Africa as Ukraine war diverts donor cash

EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks rejoice as China eases COVID curbs, U.S. inflation cools

Agnico Eagle and Pan American to buy Yamana Gold in $4.8 bln deal

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Economy

Shares on course for fourth week of gains but caution lingers

Deeper ties on Yellen’s mind as U.S begins year of African engagement

Africa’s economic growth to stabilise, inflation seen easing – AfDB

World Bank to vastly expand lending capacity to fight climate change

Stocks steady after recent low, miners boost South Africa

Stocks hit 3-week low on surprise BOJ policy tweak, China COVID woes

Africa’s food crisis is the biggest yet – five reasons why

China an unspoken focus as Biden woos African leaders

U.S. trade chief Tai says African trade program needs to foster more investment

MTN lands subsea cable in South Africa to boost Africa’s connectivity

U.S. bid for battery metals has Africa blind spot

Global central banks extend rate hike push in November

Zambia on track for debt restructuring next quarter -finance minister

UN plans further Russian fertiliser exports to Africa, upbeat on ammonia pipeline

Gates Foundation pledges $7 billion for Africa as Ukraine war diverts donor cash

EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks rejoice as China eases COVID curbs, U.S. inflation cools

Agnico Eagle and Pan American to buy Yamana Gold in $4.8 bln deal

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters