<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="624" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-820x624.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-419848" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-820x624.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-300x228.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-118x90.jpg 118w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-1536x1168.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YE32PPKO4VMW3IZVN2U7R6SIRA-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: A gas pump is seen hanging from the ceiling at a petrol station in Seoul June 27, 2011. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Global oil demand growth will rebound strongly next year as China eases COVID lockdowns, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, adding that an economic slowdown will pause growth only briefly at the end of this year.



The outlook preserves a relatively bullish view for robust growth next year despite economic headwinds, built on the expectation that China will get back to work while growth in air travel will boost jet fuel demand.



The IEA&#8217;s forecast of demand growth this year of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) is mostly concentrated in the first half of the year and is set to fall to nothing in the fourth quarter.



Offsetting the hit to demand by the economy, a switch from gas to oil for power generation will provide a 700,000 bpd boost in the last quarter of this year and the first of the next especially in Europe and the Middle East, the IEA said.



For&nbsp;2023,&nbsp;growth&nbsp;is set for&nbsp;2.1 million bpd&nbsp;mostly due to hopes of recovery in China.



Rich countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accounted for most of the rise in demand this year, while countries outside the group especially China will underpin growth next year provided Beijing relaxes its COVID curbs.



&#8220;Non-OECD countries will cover three-quarters of 2023&#8217;s gains if China reopens as expected,&#8221; the IEA added.



Meanwhile Russian oil exports are set for a bumpy ride as the European Union plans to impose a ban on maritime services transporting it on Dec. 5.



The ban will push Russian oil production down to 9.5 million bpd by February next year, the IEA said, a 1.9 million bpd drop compared to February 2022. A plan by G7 countries to cap Russian oil sales prices and not ban the trade may ease those losses.



Demand/supply balance <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3U8sdVH">https://tmsnrt.rs/3U8sdVH</a>



World total oil demand <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3QMMME1">https://tmsnrt.rs/3QMMME1</a>



Russian total oil exports<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3xnElsa">https://tmsnrt.rs/3xnElsa</a>



(Reporting by Noah Browning; editing by Jason Neely and Bernadette Baum)

FILE PHOTO: A gas pump is seen hanging from the ceiling at a petrol station in Seoul

Oil demand set to grow sharply next year, IEA says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-419753" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping, Senegal&#8217;s President Macky Sall, Congo&#8217;s President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi, Egypt&#8217;s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, South Africa&#8217;s President Cyril Ramaphosa, United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Chairman of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and Comoros? President Azali Assoumani attend the opening of the forum Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, (FOCAC) via video link in Dakar, Senegal November 29, 2021. REUTERS/Cooper Inveen/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;China&#8217;s waiver of 23 interest-free loans to African countries last month amounted to only 1.1% or less of Chinese lending to the continent, a study showed on Monday.



China&#8217;s foreign ministry said in August it had cancelled 23 loans to 17 African countries that matured in 2021, but did not give further details.



The waived loans were of 10 to 30-year maturities and were worth up to $610 million in total, researchers at Boston University estimated, using a database of Chinese state lending compiled by researchers.



China has waived some loans to African countries since 2000 when it cancelled loans made in the 1980s and 1990s, although it generally takes a harder stance on restructuring lending to developing nations under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched in 2013, analysts say.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3062XN&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Chinese state-owned lenders committed to $53.8 billion of loans to Africa between 2000 and 2012, according to the Boston University database, which tracks loans made since 2000, so the loans cancelled last month accounted for a tiny portion.



&#8220;(Interest-free loan) provision and cancellation are important diplomatic and symbolic tools in China&#8217;s lending practices,&#8221; said the report, by Jyhjong Hwang and Oyintarelado Moses.



They added that the loans are &#8220;more akin to foreign policy instruments than bottom line-oriented financial instruments&#8221;.



Interest-free loans from China to Africa, which have included funding for government buildings, stadiums and hospitals, are usually treated like grants, according to researchers and African government officials.



(Reporting by Rachel Savage; Additional reporting by Martin Quin Pollard and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Editing by Susan Fenton)

J7XC4DKQNFJL7BQCZLKT6HX4DQ

China’s waiver of African interest-free loans worth 1% or less of its lending to continent-study

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="614" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-820x614.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417600" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-820x614.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-120x90.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-1536x1150.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1288637369-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>The United States two-dollar bill ($2) is a current denomination of United States currency. A portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States (1801–09), is featured on the obverse of the note. The reverse features an engraving of the painting Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. photographed by Peter Dazeley Nov 2020 in his studio in London UK</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG/BENGALURU, Sept 7 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging market currencies will find it difficult to reclaim ground lost this year as relentless Federal Reserve rate hikes and safe-haven demand keep the dollar ascendant, a Reuters poll of currency strategists found.



A stampede into the greenback pushed the wider index of emerging market currencies&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;to its lowest in two years on Tuesday amid growing worries of global recession.



The Sept. 1-6 Reuters survey of currency strategists showed more of the same trouble ahead. Almost all beaten-down EM currencies were expected to weaken or at best cling to a range over the next three months.



&#8220;EMFX will continue to go through a period of elevated volatility until the USD reaches a climax,&#8221; noted Phoenix Kalen, director of emerging markets strategy at Societe Generale.



&#8220;Not only has the market over the past month reverted back to pricing in a more aggressive pace of FOMC rate hikes, but the underlying context of global growth has continued to deteriorate &#8230; and downside China surprises add to the myriad challenges facing EM FX.&#8221;



During past U.S. tightening cycles emerging market central banks usually tried to match or better the pace of the Fed but this time they have failed to keep up.



This has put pressure on EM currencies, driving India&#8217;s rupee&nbsp;INR=IN&nbsp;and Philippine&#8217;s peso&nbsp;PHP=&nbsp;to record lows.&nbsp;INR/POLL



Nearly three-quarters of analysts, 41 of 56, who answered an additional question said EM currencies would fall against the dollar in the next three months, including six who said they would fall significantly.



FX analysts also warned that the Chinese yuan&nbsp;CNY=, which is down about 9% this year, is affecting emerging market counterparts more than ever before and may have a profound effect on their performance over the coming year.



&#8220;The Fed is not going to be the only factor keeping the dollar strong. EMFX remains undermined by renminbi weakness,&#8221; said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING.



&#8220;Unless China presents some sizable fiscal stimulus or abandons its zero COVID strategy, EMFX will continue to trade poorly.&#8221;



While the Reuters poll median for China&#8217;s yuan suggests the currency would strengthen, Mitul Kotecha at TD Securities said there are growing signs, including from recent yuan fixings, that the People&#8217;s Bank of China is uncomfortable with the pace of CNY depreciation.



&#8220;The authorities will favour some depreciation to support exports but will remain wary of a rapid decline in the currency as reflected in recent PBOC push back. We expect such resistance to be maintained, especially ahead of the Communist Party Congress in mid-October,&#8221; added Kotecha.



South Africa&#8217;s rand&nbsp;ZAR=D3&nbsp;meanwhile has taken on a more favourable outlook in comparison to other EM currencies. The high-yielding rand was expected to erase most of its losses made so far this year, gaining about 6.0% to 16.30/$ in a year.



Turkey&#8217;s lira&nbsp;TRY=&nbsp;is down nearly 26% this year, in addition to the 44% it lost last year, as Turkey&#8217;s central bank slashed interest rates even as inflation was soaring. Inflation exceed 80% in August.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N30C0Z0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The worst-performing emerging market currency this year, the lira was set to fall about 16% to 21.66 per dollar in the next 12 months.



Russia&#8217;s rouble&nbsp;RUB=, which was propped up by capital controls and had artificially risen to become the world&#8217;s best-performing currency so far this year, is expected to weaken more than 15% to 71.00/$ in a year.



(For other stories from the September Reuters foreign exchange poll:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N30D19C&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>)



Reuters Poll &#8211; Emerging market currency outlook<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3TL8uLx">https://tmsnrt.rs/3TL8uLx</a>



(Reporting by Vuyani Ndaba in JOHANNESBURG and Vivek Mishra in BENGALURU; Polling by Anant Chandak, Arsh Mogre and Devayani Sathyan; Editing by Ross Finley and Nick Zieminski)

Several two US dollar bill sitting in a pile

Worst not over for EM currencies as U.S. dollar thunders on

By&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/habtamu-fuje/">Habtamu Fuje</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/saad-quayyum/">Saad Quayyum</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/franck-ouattara/">Franck Ouattara</a>



Several sub-Saharan African central banks are exploring or in the pilot phase of a digital currency, following Nigeria’s October introduction of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/11/15/na111621-five-observations-on-nigerias-central-bank-digital-currency">e-Naira</a>. Nigeria was the second country after the Bahamas to roll out a CBDC.



CBDCs are digital versions of cash that are more secure and less volatile than crypto assets because they are issued and regulated by central banks. As the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Chart-of-the-week">Chart of the Week </a>shows, South Africa and Ghana are running pilots while other countries are in the research phase.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="800" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies-800x800.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-419019" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies-90x90.jpg 90w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies.jpg 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



The South African Reserve Bank is experimenting with a wholesale CBDC, which can only be used by financial institutions for interbank transfers, as part of the second phase of its&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.resbank.co.za%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fpublications%2Fpublication-detail-pages%2Fmedia-releases%2F2022%2FProject-Khokha-2-Report-Release&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=9bi4N1DnVXyBQaDoaZuHMUNEHnlavN4v64Lu%2FR7VKhU%3D&amp;reserved=0">Project Khokha</a>. The country is also participating in a&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.resbank.co.za%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fpublications%2Fpublication-detail-pages%2Fmedia-releases%2F2021%2FBIS-Innovation-Hub-and-the-SARB-will-test-CBDCs-for-international-settlements&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=G7O5ApMa0pj3lBMnmdIXOqSxA0e8DT555NNmDjZYB58%3D&amp;reserved=0">cross-border pilot&nbsp;</a>with the central banks of Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.



The Bank of Ghana, by contrast, is testing a general purpose or retail CBDC, the <a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bog.gov.gh%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F08%2FCBDC-Joint-Press-Release-BoG-GD-3.pdf&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=HOSwv7osKywz0kZr8yMKmrTbFxDMW%2FqqGbSLZ%2Baffoc%3D&amp;reserved=0">e-Cedi</a>, which can be used by anyone with either a digital wallet app or a contactless smart card that can be used offline.



Countries have different motives for issuing CBDCs but for the region there are some potentially important benefits.



The first is promoting financial inclusion.&nbsp;CBDCs could bring financial services to people who previously didn’t have bank accounts, especially if designed for offline use. In remote areas without internet access, digital transactions can be made at little or no cost using simple feature phones.



CBDCs can be used to distribute targeted welfare payments, especially during sudden crises such as a pandemic or natural disaster.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://blogs.imf.org/"><img decoding="async" src="https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/logo_sticky.png" alt="IMF Blog Logo"/></a></figure>



<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2022/06/23/more-african-central-banks-are-exploring-digital-currencies/#"></a><a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2022/06/23/more-african-central-banks-are-exploring-digital-currencies/#"></a>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2099" height="600" src="https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421.png" alt="" srcset="https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421-200x57.png 200w, https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421-400x114.png 400w, https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421-600x172.png 600w, https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421-800x229.png 800w, https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421-1200x343.png 1200w, https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BLOG-2099x600-COTW-Digital-Currencies-blackdovfx-iStock-1333222421.png 2099w">(PHOTO: BLACKDOVFX/ISTOCK BY GETTY IMAGES)</li></ul>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">CHART OF THE WEEKMore African Central Banks Are Exploring Digital Currencies</h1>



JUNE 23, 2022



By&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/habtamu-fuje/">Habtamu Fuje</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/saad-quayyum/">Saad Quayyum</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/franck-ouattara/">Franck Ouattara</a>



Several sub-Saharan African central banks are exploring or in the pilot phase of a digital currency, following Nigeria’s October introduction of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/11/15/na111621-five-observations-on-nigerias-central-bank-digital-currency">e-Naira</a>. Nigeria was the second country after the Bahamas to roll out a CBDC.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://blogs.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/COTW-AFR-Digital-Currencies.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-36803"/></a></figure></div>



CBDCs are digital versions of cash that are more secure and less volatile than crypto assets because they are issued and regulated by central banks. As the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Chart-of-the-week">Chart of the Week&nbsp;</a>shows, South Africa and Ghana are running pilots while other countries are in the research phase.The South African Reserve Bank is experimenting with a wholesale CBDC, which can only be used by financial institutions for interbank transfers, as part of the second phase of its&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.resbank.co.za%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fpublications%2Fpublication-detail-pages%2Fmedia-releases%2F2022%2FProject-Khokha-2-Report-Release&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=9bi4N1DnVXyBQaDoaZuHMUNEHnlavN4v64Lu%2FR7VKhU%3D&amp;reserved=0">Project Khokha</a>. The country is also participating in a&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.resbank.co.za%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fpublications%2Fpublication-detail-pages%2Fmedia-releases%2F2021%2FBIS-Innovation-Hub-and-the-SARB-will-test-CBDCs-for-international-settlements&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=G7O5ApMa0pj3lBMnmdIXOqSxA0e8DT555NNmDjZYB58%3D&amp;reserved=0">cross-border pilot&nbsp;</a>with the central banks of Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.



The Bank of Ghana, by contrast, is testing a general purpose or retail CBDC, the&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bog.gov.gh%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F08%2FCBDC-Joint-Press-Release-BoG-GD-3.pdf&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=HOSwv7osKywz0kZr8yMKmrTbFxDMW%2FqqGbSLZ%2Baffoc%3D&amp;reserved=0">e-Cedi</a>, which can be used by anyone with either a digital wallet app or a contactless smart card that can be used offline.



Countries have different motives for issuing CBDCs but for the region there are some potentially important benefits.



The first is promoting financial inclusion.&nbsp;CBDCs could bring financial services to people who previously didn’t have bank accounts, especially if designed for offline use. In remote areas without internet access, digital transactions can be made at little or no cost using simple feature phones.



CBDCs can be used to distribute targeted welfare payments, especially during sudden crises such as a pandemic or natural disaster.



They can also facilitate cross-border transfers and payments.&nbsp;Sub-Saharan Africa is the&nbsp;<a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.knomad.org%2Fpublication%2Fmigration-and-development-brief-36&amp;data=05%7C01%7CIMazlan%40imf.org%7C85ecea196ff9487a4c9308da547f5e3d%7C8085fa43302e45bdb171a6648c3b6be7%7C0%7C0%7C637915203259439947%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=CO2sTtRrNNrv3MpDCEmxy%2Fx0nZY3bv%2B9%2FFo3TxOawYg%3D&amp;reserved=0">most expensive region&nbsp;</a>to send and receive money, with an average cost of just under 8 percent of the transfer amount. CBDCs could make sending remittances easier, faster, and cheaper by shortening payment chains and creating more competition among service providers. Faster clearance of cross-border payments would help boost trade within the region and with the rest of the world.



There are risks and challenges that need to be considered before issuing a CBDC, however. Governments will need to improve access to digital infrastructure such as a phone or internet connectivity. While the region has made significant strides, more investment is needed.



More broadly, central banks will need to develop the expertise and technical capacity to manage the risks to data privacy, including from potential cyber-attacks, and to financial integrity, which will require countries to strengthen their national identification systems so know-your-customer requirements are more easily enforced. There is also a risk that citizens pull too much money out of banks to purchase CBDCs, affecting banks’ ability to lend. This is especially a problem for countries with unstable financial systems.



Central banks will also need to consider how CBDCs affect the private industry for digital payment services, which has made important strides in promoting financial inclusion through mobile money.

In this photo illustration the International Monetary Fund (

More African Central Banks Are Exploring Digital Currencies

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="555" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I-820x555.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418955" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I-820x555.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I-300x203.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I-133x90.jpg 133w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I-768x520.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>A employee counts Colombian pesos at a store in Bogota, Colombia December 28, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez//File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging markets posted a fifth straight month of portfolio outflows in July, setting the longest such streak in records going back to 2005, as global recession risk, inflation and a strong dollar drew away cash, data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) showed on Wednesday.



Non-residents pulled $9.8 billion out of emerging market portfolios in July, the data show,&nbsp;compared&nbsp;with&nbsp;an outflow&nbsp;of $3.8 billion in June and a $35.1 billion inflow in July 2021.



Net outflow over the past five months totaled $39.3 billion, according to the IIF.



Cash has left emerging markets partly because developed economies have reversed years of very low interest rates to try to put a cap on inflation. Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine in February triggered a spike in food and energy prices that increased their challenge.



Commodity exporters, many in emerging markets, gained revenue and attracted investment, and heightened payments to them also countered dollar strength &#8211; but only for a while.



&#8220;Most of the recent dynamics in flows can be attributed to the dollar,&#8221; IIF economist Jonathan Fortun said in a statement, noting that following a string of interest rate hikes the U.S. Federal Reserve could be approaching a &#8220;neutral&#8221; rate. Reaching it and achieving some stability in U.S. interest rates could help stem the outflows.



But on Tuesday a trio of Fed officials from across the policy spectrum signaled that they and their colleagues remained &#8220;completely united&#8221; on getting U.S. interest rates up to a level that would more significantly curb economic activity and put a dent in the highest inflation since the 1980s.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2ZE1P1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The dollar index&nbsp;=USD&nbsp;21-day moving average closed on Tuesday at its highest level since mid-November 2002.



&#8220;For the coming months, several factors will influence flows dynamics,&#8221; said Fortun. &#8220;Among these (are) the timing of inflation peaking and the outlook for the Chinese economy.&#8221;



July saw inflows of $2.5 billion to emerging-market equity portfolios outside of China, the first month of inflows since February, while ex-China emerging-market debt posted $6.0 billion in outflows. China saw a net outflow of $6.4 billion, with $2.9 billion leaving debt portfolios and $3.5 billion exiting equities.



(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Paul Simao and Bradley Perrett)

LYYZVZJSCZN2TJCO45GID3BP3I

Emerging market portfolios post longest streak of monthly outflows on record – IIF

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418923" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GettyImages-1412591406-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>TAIPEI, TAIWAN &#8211; AUGUST 03: Speaker of the U.S. House Of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), center, speaks after receiving the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon, Taiwan’s highest civilian honour, from Taiwan&#8217;s President Tsai Ing-wen, right, at the president&#8217;s office on August 03, 2022 in Taipei, Taiwan. Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday as part of a tour of Asia aimed at reassuring allies in the region, as China made it clear that her visit to Taiwan would be seen in a negative light. (Photo by Chien Chih-Hung/Office of The President via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Aug 3 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The South African rand regained some ground on Wednesday as China&#8217;s response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s visit to Taiwan was not as severe as some in financial markets had feared.



Pelosi&#8217;s visit has caused an escalation in tensions between the United States and China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, triggering a sell-off in risk-sensitive currencies like the rand on Tuesday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2ZE1CN&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



China demonstrated its anger with a burst of military activity, and by summoning the U.S. ambassador and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan. But demand for safe-haven assets eased on Wednesday, providing some respite to the rand.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2ZF06C&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



At 0730 GMT, the South African currency&nbsp;ZAR=D3&nbsp;traded at 16.6800 to the dollar, nearly 1% stronger than its previous close. On Tuesday it lost almost 2%.



Also providing support to rand assets in a relatively light week for domestic economic data, a purchasing managers&#8217; index survey showed South African private sector activity expanded for the third month in a row in July.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AZRN004TQL&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The South African government&#8217;s benchmark 2030 bond&nbsp;ZAR2030=&nbsp;was slightly weaker in early deals, with the yield up 2 basis points to 10.365%.



(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Mark Potter)

US House Speaker Pelosi Visits Taiwan

South African rand rises; China’s response to Pelosi visit not as severe as feared

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="551" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI-820x551.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418730" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI-820x551.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI-300x202.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI-134x90.jpg 134w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI-768x516.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>French President Emmanuel Macron is welcomed by Cameroon&#8217;s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on his arrival in Yaounde, Cameroon July 25, 2022. REUTERS/Desire Danga Essigue.</figcaption></figure>



YAOUNDE, July 26 (Reuters) &#8211; French President Emmanuel Macron started a three-leg Africa tour in Cameroon in Tuesday, a trip meant to strengthen political ties with the continent and help boost agricultural production amid growing food insecurity linked to the war in Ukraine.



The mineral-rich central African nation is a major food producer for the region and Macron&#8217;s delegation will seek investment opportunities in the agricultural sector.



He will meet Cameroon&#8217;s President Paul Biya in the capital Yaounde, as well as the French community and civil society representatives.



Many African nations are facing food and energy security issues due to their dependence on Russian grain and energy, but they also buy Ukrainian grain that has been disrupted by the conflict.



African governments have largely avoided taking sides and refused to join Western condemnation and sanctions over Russia&#8217;s behaviour.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-with-skyrocketing-global-food-prices-agricultural-development-in-africa-is-an-imperative">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/with-skyrocketing-global-food-prices-agricultural-development-in-africa-is-an-imperative/">With Skyrocketing Global Food Prices Agricultural Development in Africa Is An Imperative</a></h3>



But anti-French sentiment is rising in France&#8217;s former West African colonies, where security concerns and political instability following a string of coups are stoking frustration and swinging public opinion in favour of Russia.



The trip &#8211; Macron&#8217;s first in Africa since his re-election in April &#8211; coincides with visits by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer to different countries across the continent.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2Z62IH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Cameroon is grappling with sharp increases in prices for oil, fertiliser and foodstuffs. Severe fuel shortages hit the capital Yaounde last week leading to long queues at petrol stations.



The country is also battling Boko Haram insurgents in the north near the Nigerian border, while English-speaking separatists in two Anglophone regions in the west have taken up arms against the government since 2017.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YE0HR&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Macron will head to Benin on Wednesday and Guinea-Bissau on Thursday.



(Reporting by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Bate Felix and Alison Williams)

HLHJI4GZZJKNXKBDWKD2BAZUXI

Macron to push investments in Cameroon to boost Africa food security

<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/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418656" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P2MY34BRVBLP3GIGPNESDVEDGY-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: An eagle tops the U.S. Federal Reserve building&#8217;s facade in Washington, July 31, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, July 21 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;If the U.S. Federal Reserve killed off forward guidance&nbsp;in June, the European Central Bank may have just hammered the final nail in the coffin of a tool&nbsp;officials&nbsp;had long used to&nbsp;provide monetary policy signals&nbsp;to financial markets.



The ECB delivered a&nbsp;half-percentage-point&nbsp;rate hike on Thursday, double what it flagged in June when setting out its policy-tightening&nbsp;plans. It had appeared to change tack earlier this week, when sources told Reuters a bigger rate hike was now under consideration.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2Z20BK&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The switch to what the ECB itself described as &#8220;a meeting-by-meeting approach&#8221; is the latest warning to investors and traders who have watched policymakers from Australia to Switzerland to Sweden execute startling&nbsp;U-turns&nbsp;on policy signals they had sent only weeks earlier.



The clearest&nbsp;sign that&nbsp;the game was up for forward guidance came perhaps in June when&nbsp;the U.S. central bank raised its overnight benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points, barely a month after&nbsp;Fed Chair&nbsp;Jerome Powell ruled out such a big move.



&#8220;It&#8217;s dead in the water,&#8221; said Peter Kinsella, global head of FX strategy at asset manager UBP, who&nbsp;noted that he had&nbsp;taken &#8220;zero account&#8221; of forward guidance for months.



&#8220;It was a tool central banks used when inflation was very low, basically to say &#8216;we will keep rates low for a long time&#8217; to encourage consumers to keep spending.&#8221;



But inflation is back with a vengeance, having surged to an&nbsp;annualised rate&nbsp;of 8.6% in the euro zone&nbsp;in June on the back of&nbsp;explosive energy and food prices. The&nbsp;data&nbsp;rendered obsolete the ECB&#8217;s pledge to kick off rate hikes with a modest move.



That&nbsp;picture is mirrored across the developed world.



The Fed&#8217;s change of heart came less than a week after a big May inflation print showed inflation had not peaked.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2XX118&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



And between the Fed and ECB, came the Bank of Canada&#8217;s&nbsp;surprise full-percentage-point&nbsp;rate increase on July 13. After two&nbsp;prior 50-basis-point moves,&nbsp;the governor of the Canadian central bank&nbsp;had hinted at more &#8220;forceful&#8221; action but not prepared markets for the extent of the hike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2YU5P0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



ECB&nbsp;President&nbsp;Christine Lagarde said on Thursday&nbsp;her&nbsp;central bank had opted to disregard its previous signal for a bigger rate hike, given &#8220;several indicators that constituted a change from the June meeting,&#8221; especially the &#8220;materialisation of inflation risks.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-welcome-death">&#8216;WELCOME DEATH&#8217;</h2>



The biggest benefit of forward guidance was to enable policymakers to reassure banks they could continue passing lower long-term interest rates to mortgage and business&nbsp;clients,&nbsp;boosting economic growth.



It also offered&nbsp;the ECB and others&nbsp;a way to fight deflation, by encouraging more borrowing and spending.



Central banks will still continue guiding markets to an extent, perhaps to tighten financial conditions and tame inflation expectations.



Investors note too that money markets have this year mostly disregarded dovish guidance, instead pricing aggressive policy tightening.



In the current&nbsp;changed circumstances, forward guidance&nbsp;can backfire,&nbsp;said Gareth Hill, a portfolio manager&nbsp;at Royal London Asset Management,&nbsp;who admitted being puzzled that the ECB had &#8220;boxed&#8221; itself into a&nbsp;25-basis-point rate hike&nbsp;six weeks in advance.



&#8220;As data comes out in the course of that period between the start of guidance and the actual time to deliver those hikes &#8230; and speculation starts to come in, that can increase volatility in itself,&#8221; Hill added.



That was evident this week, with the euro roaring off 20-year lows&nbsp;against the U.S. dollar, and German long-dated bond yields&nbsp;up&nbsp;12 basis points on Tuesday after Reuters&nbsp;reported the ECB might hike rates by half a percentage point.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2Z01UW&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Similarly,&nbsp;a Wall Street Journal story on the eve of the Fed&#8217;s June 14-15 policy meeting that hinted at a possible 75-basis-point rate hike&nbsp;lit a fire under the dollar and&nbsp;helped push 10-year U.S. Treasury yields 21 basis points higher, the daily biggest jump since 2020.



This means formulating investment strategy is about to get harder for investors used to scanning monetary policy statements for those magic words: &#8220;extended period of time.&#8221;



&#8220;With forward guidance saying rates will stay low for a long period, you could sit there and accept this would be the case. It was never completely immutable, but in a low-rate world you could take central banks to some extent at their word,&#8221; said Dominic Bunning, HSBC&#8217;s head of European FX strategy.



&#8220;Now it becomes more important to get those calls on inflation and growth right.&#8221;



ABN AMRO analyst Nick Kounis is among those pleased with a more data-dependent approach.



&#8220;Here you are trying to understand the data and the forward guidance and whether it will change. That creates too much complexity for anyone trying to understand what a central bank is trying to do,&#8221; Kounis said.



The ECB statement&nbsp;on Thursday&nbsp;&#8220;signalled the welcome death of very specific forward guidance,&#8221; he added.



G10 policy rates move<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3yVYcyG">https://tmsnrt.rs/3yVYcyG</a>



Inflation surge creates a difficult environment for forward guidance<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3B4Kjkn">https://tmsnrt.rs/3B4Kjkn</a>



(Reporting by Sujata Rao and Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Paul Simao)

FILE PHOTO: An eagle tops the U.S. Federal Reserve building’s facade in Washington

R.I.P. forward guidance: Inflation forces central banks to ditch messaging tool

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ege0gZ6a.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418570" width="600" height="314" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ege0gZ6a.jpg 600w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ege0gZ6a-300x157.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ege0gZ6a-160x84.jpg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><figcaption>RABAT, Morocco &#8211; JUNE 20: In this handout image provided by APO Group, (L-R) Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank Vice President, Alain Ebobissé, Africa50 CEO and Ithamar Capital CEO Obaid Amrane signed a letter of intent during an event launching the Africa Sovereign Investors Forum on June 20, 2022 in Rabat, Morocco. The African Development Bank, Africa50, and Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF), have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on developing green and climate resilient infrastructure projects across Africa. Access full release: https://bit.ly/3HLnNOB (Photo by APO Group via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



MARRAKECH, Morocco, July 19 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;African countries need to leverage more private funds to meet infrastructure financing needs estimated at between $68 billion and $108 billion annually, the chief executive of Africa50, an infrastructure investment offshoot of the African Development Bank, said on Tuesday in Marrakech.



Leveraging more private capital to finance infrastructure projects, as part of public-private partnerships, would help free public funds to projects shunned by the private sector, CEO Alain Ebobissé said on the eve of the launch of a U.S- Africa business summit.



Since its creation six years ago, Africa50 has spent $5 billion on 16 projects in the fields of energy, transport, information and communication technologies, healthcare and education.



Africa50 has also signed on the same day a deal with a grouping of some of the richest African wealth funds to increase their involvement in African infrastructure investments.



Since 2013, China has been the top foreign investor in Africa, unrolling billions of dollars on the continent’s infrastructure. The U.S. is stepping up efforts, but is still far from catching up.



The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) had planned $26 million last year to fund feasibility studies of African investment projects with a potential to generate $17 billion in financing, the agency&#8217;s director, Enoh Ebong, told Reuters.



&#8220;Sub-Saharan Africa is one of our largest portfolios at the agency,&#8221; she said, adding that she sees demand growing on U.S. companies from the continent.



While U.S. companies take care of feasibility studies funded by the USTDA, African partners &#8220;can get financing from any party whatsoever. We would like it that they do it with our fellow U.S. government agencies, but we do not put any condition on who finances that project,&#8221; Ebong said.



&#8220;For every $1 spent on feasibility studies we see a return of $117, which translates into jobs in the U.S.,” Ebong said.



&#8220;We are absolutely competitive, and we see it in the partners who are picking U.S. companies in head-to-head competition with Chinese companies,&#8221; she added, calling infrastructure &#8220;key to trade.&#8221;



(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Leslie Adler)

ege0gZ6a

Africa needs more private funds for infrastructure investments- Africa50 CEO

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="728" height="532" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VPYY3ZT7ZNJENJWREWMZ24HEXM.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418517" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VPYY3ZT7ZNJENJWREWMZ24HEXM.jpg 728w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VPYY3ZT7ZNJENJWREWMZ24HEXM-300x219.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VPYY3ZT7ZNJENJWREWMZ24HEXM-123x90.jpg 123w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" /><figcaption>Workers at Tenke Fungurume, a copper mine in the southern Congolese province of Katanga, check bundles of copper cathode sheets ready to be loaded and sent out to buyers ,file. REUTERS/Jonny Hogg</figcaption></figure>



DAKAR/JOHANNESBURG, July 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;CMOC&#8217;s&nbsp;603993.SS&nbsp;Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine has suspended all exports, logistics companies were told in a notice seen by Reuters late on Saturday, complying with demands by a court-appointed administrator.



A CMOC spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment but had said on Friday that the mine, which accounted for more than 10% of worldwide cobalt output in 2021, had not issued any instructions to stop exports.



CMOC has been locked in dispute with the administrator appointed in February to run the mine for six months in response to a lawsuit by Congo state miner Gecamines, a minority stakeholder in Tenke Fungurume.



The administrator, Sage Ngoie Mbayo, this month demanded that CMOC suspend marketing and export of its production because CMOC and Gecamines had not reached agreement this year on how to sell the mine&#8217;s output.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YM12Q&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



CMOC, meanwhile, has denied the administrator access to the mine site.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-east-congo-violence-worsening-despite-military-rule-u-n-experts">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/east-congo-violence-worsening-despite-military-rule-u-n-experts/">East Congo violence worsening despite military rule – U.N. experts</a></h3>



In the notice to companies that transport the mine&#8217;s output, a CMOC unit announced immediate suspension of access to the mine for all copper and cobalt trucks until July 24, adding that companies would be informed if exports could resume on July 25.



Three industry sources confirmed the suspension, speaking on condition of anonymity.



The administrator&#8217;s appointment stemmed from allegations by Gecamines that CMOC understated the mine&#8217;s reserves to reduce royalties it pays to Gecamines. CMOC denies the allegations.



Congo&#8217;s government announced last August that it had formed a commission to reassess reserve levels, a rare instance of Congolese authorities challenging the Chinese companies that dominate its mining sector.



Congo is the world’s top producer of cobalt, which is used in electric batteries, and is Africa’s leading copper miner.



(Reporting by Aaron Ross in Dakar and Helen Reid in Johannesburg; Editing by David Goodman)

CMOC’s Congo mine suspends copper and cobalt exports

<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>



NEW YORK/LONDON, June 30 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;It&#8217;s been a torrid first half for emerging market assets and with the Federal Reserve kicking off its tightening cycle amid soaring inflation shock waves might be on the horizon.



Adding to that are supply chain problems out of China, a war in Europe&#8217;s bread basket, stalling global growth and fears that the world&#8217;s largest economy could tip into recession &#8211; all casting a pall over riskier assets.



Data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) showed that small inflows into emerging market debt for the year until end-May were almost all offset by outflows from equities. The IIF predicted that year-on-year foreign portfolio flows to emerging markets could shrink by 42% to less than a trillion dollars in 2022.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XG2XT&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;If you are a global investor and you are not forced to be in emerging markets, to be honest it is hard to convince you to invest in the asset class at this time,&#8221; said Luis Oganes, JPMorgan&#8217;s head of Global Macro Research.



Below five take-aways of what&#8217;s in store for emerging markets.



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



Despite the U.S. dollar hitting near-two decade highs against developed-world peers&nbsp;=USD, emerging currencies held up somewhat with the index&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;down 3.8%.



Latin American currencies posted sharp gains in the first quarter thanks to rising commodity prices and central banks frontrunning the Fed, and remained in the black despite massive de-risking in the second quarter.



Performance will hinge on sensitivity to commodity price shocks, and whether central banks can focus on growth rather than inflation.



&#8220;EM FX will stay under pressure over the immediate horizon, as fragile investor sentiment keeps USD bid,&#8221; said Phoenix Kalen, director of emerging markets strategy at Societe Generale.



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



Emerging equities are set for their largest first-half drop since the 1998 Asian financial crisis with the MSCI benchmark&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;down 17% year-to-date while China, the index&#8217;s single biggest component, is down 12%&nbsp;.MICN00000PUS.



The latter could offer some respite for equity investors, as Beijing needed to stimulate the world&#8217;s number two economy, said Ashish Chugh, portfolio manager for Loomis Sayles.



&#8220;I am bullish on China, because valuations are very attractive due to policy support and significant pressure from government officials to boost growth,&#8221; he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">RATE HIKES</h2>



Emerging central banks started the rate hike cycle well before the U.S. Fed to curb inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic.



Brazil leads the group with the most aggressive monetary tightening cycle, lifting its key rate from 2% in March 2021 to 13.25% this month.



But with soaring inflation pushing major central banks to ramp up rates faster, the goal posts are shifting and policy makers in developing nations might be forced to extend or adapt their rate hiking cycles.



&#8220;Once we see the Fed hike another 75 basis points and that is under our belts, it is all about expectations of where the terminal rates are going to be,&#8221; said Nathalie Marshik, head of EM sovereign research at Stifel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">RISING SPREADS</h2>



JPMorgan&#8217;s EMBIG hard-currency sovereign bond index shows 17 countries&#8217; spreads over safe-have U.S. Treasuries above 1,000 basis points, effectively locking them out of international markets. That number is higher than during the peak COVID-19 rout or the 2008 global financial crisis, and shows the strain economies are facing, particularly frontier markets.



World Bank economists estimate 40 poor countries and about half a dozen middle income ones are either in debt distress or at a high risk of it.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YF0RW&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Sri Lanka, Zambia, Pakistan and Lebanon are among countries negotiating debt relief with creditors or International Monetary Fund bailouts &#8211; expect the list to grow in the second half.



Emerging hard-currency bonds&nbsp;.JPMEGDR&nbsp;clocked up negative returns of 20% year-to-date &#8211; one of their worst starts to the year in decades.



&#8220;In a range of scenarios you should be expecting positive total returns for the asset class, which is also looking relatively cheap compared to competitors like U.S. high yield,&#8221; said Alejo Czerwonko, CIO for emerging markets Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.



&#8220;It&#8217;s still a very, very uncertain environment, the dust hasn&#8217;t settled in terms of just how far the Fed will go.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-russia-default">RUSSIA DEFAULT</h2>



The single biggest emerging &#8211; or global &#8211; markets story of the first half of 2022 was Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine. An investment grade emerging market in January, Russia tipped into default after being severed from global financial markets amid sweeping sanctions.



The rouble, which hit historic lows in the aftermath of the invasion, is the best performing emerging currency this year &#8211; though one subject to strong controls from Moscow and no longer freely traded.



While Russia&#8217;s ejection from financial markets has largely happened, wider consequences of the war from elevated energy, commodities and food prices and geopolitical instabilities will remain a driving factor over the months to come.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YE06F&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Emerging market currencies versus the U.S. dollar<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3AfOd9o">https://tmsnrt.rs/3AfOd9o</a>



Emerging market stocks performance in USD<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3yoCBzR">https://tmsnrt.rs/3yoCBzR</a>



EM benchmark interest rates<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3yqxDT4">https://tmsnrt.rs/3yqxDT4</a>



The most distressed emerging market bonds<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3QYgMyq">https://tmsnrt.rs/3QYgMyq</a>



The Russian rouble under war stress<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/38aOxL8">https://tmsnrt.rs/38aOxL8</a>



(Reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario in London and Rodrigo Campos in New York; additional reporting by Karin Strohecker, Editing by William Maclean)

World map with charts and graphs as symbols of global finance

Emerging markets face bleak outlook after stormy start to the year

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="533" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-820x533.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418142" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-820x533.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-300x195.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-138x90.jpg 138w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-768x499.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-1536x999.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5BJKLQNY65JNLJAAC37N24TIIM-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Bank notes of different currencies, including Euro, U.S. Dollar, Turkish Lira or Brazilian Reais, are photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, in this illustration picture taken May 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/Illustration</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, June 28 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A senior official at the World Bank has ramped up its calls for changes in sovereign debt laws so governments have more control when crises strike and they have to restructure their debt.



World Bank economists estimate that low- and middle-income economies owe a record $9.3 trillion to foreign creditors and that 40 poor countries, and about half a dozen middle income ones, are either in debt distress or at a high risk of it.



&#8220;As global growth fizzles and interest rates surge, the risk of a spate of debt crises is rising &#8211; and yet the available mechanisms for tackling them are deeply inadequate,&#8221; Indermit Gill, the Bank&#8217;s vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions and sovereign debt lawyer Lee Buchheit said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2022/06/27/targeted-legislative-tweaks-can-help-contain-the-harm-of-debt-crises" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a>.



They outlined four key changes that would improve the effectiveness of the so-called Common Framework debt relief plan the Group of Twenty (G20) rich nations launched at the height of COVID-19 pandemic.



First, the blog authors said government bond contracts should stipulate that all creditors have a legal duty to cooperate &#8220;in good faith&#8221; in sovereign-debt restructurings.



Western governments traditionally negotiate separately to other lenders such as China when countries they both lend to run into trouble. Those efforts are also separate from negotiations by big global investment firms such BlackRock and Vanguard.



Second, all sovereign debt contracts should limit how much a creditor can collect through law suits outside the Common Framework and, in addition, include &#8220;Collective Action Clauses&#8221; which mean all bonds can be restructured as long as the vast majority of bondholders have agreed.



That in turn would clip the wings of so-called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/african-legal-support-facility/vulture-funds-in-the-sovereign-debt-context" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vulture</a>&nbsp;funds that try to hold out and then take governments to court to score a bigger payout for themselves.



Third, it should be made harder for creditors to seize the assets of a debt-distressed government if it has acted in good faith. During one of Argentina&#8217;s debt crises, a U.S. hedge fund seized one of its navel ships when it was in Ghana.



Finally, the authors said that while collective action clauses are in many bond contracts issued over the past 20 years, they are not included in syndicated loans which make up a large part of developing country debt and such mechanisms should be retrofitted wherever feasible.



&#8220;Governments have a compelling public interest to adopt legislation to end this imbalance,&#8221; the blog said, saying legal centres such New York and London would be crucial. &#8220;Consider it a long-overdue step to protect their own taxpayers&#8221;.



Rising debt in poorer countries<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/3a0DB3I" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/3a0DB3I</a>



(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by David Clarke)

Bank notes of different currencies are photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, in this illustration picture

World Bank calls for sovereign debt changes ahead of looming crises

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418117" width="820" height="547" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>An employee picks avocados at the Kakuzi plantation in Makuyu, Kenya, May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Baz Ratner</figcaption></figure>



THIKA, Kenya, June 28 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Watching workers poke avocados from the treetops in an orchard owned by Kenyan agriculture firm Kakuzi, managing director Chris Flowers revels in the thought some might soon go to the crown jewel of emerging consumer markets: China.



Taking advantage of Beijing&#8217;s deeper focus on trade with African countries to help reduce gaping deficits, Kenya struck an export deal with China for fresh avocados in January after years of lobbying for market access.



Six months later, no shipments have left, Kenya&#8217;s avocado society, the East African country&#8217;s plant health inspectorate and Kakuzi&nbsp;KUKZ.NR&nbsp;told Reuters.



While 10 avocado exporters have passed Kenyan inspections, China now wants to do its own audits and, based on the past experience of some other African fruit producers, it could take a decade to get the green light.



&#8220;You can actually have a market, but if you can&#8217;t meet the standards, you can&#8217;t take advantage,&#8221; said Stephen Karingi, head of trade at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.



Reuters spoke to nine officials and businesses across Africa who said Chinese red tape and a reluctance to strike broad trade deals were undermining Beijing&#8217;s plan to boost African imports.



Ramping up agricultural exports, however, is one of the few options many African countries have to rebalance their trade relationships with China and earn the hard currency they need to service mountains of debt, much of it owed to Beijing.



Take Kenya.&nbsp;Its&nbsp;annual trade deficit with China is about $6.5 billion and it has roughly $8 billion of Chinese debt. It needs nearly $631 million to service that debt alone this year, but that&#8217;s almost three times its exports to China in 2021.



Many African nations now say they simply cannot afford more Chinese loans and must boost exports to China. In recognition of the need to address the imbalances, or at least stop them getting worse, China announced a shift in strategy in November.



At a China-Africa summit typically used by Beijing to unveil eye-popping loans, President Xi Jinping announced a raft of initiatives to boost China&#8217;s imports from Africa to $300 billion over the next three years and $300 billion a year by 2035.



In theory, agriculture is one the most promising avenues, experts say. China is the world&#8217;s biggest food importer while the agricultural sector in Africa is both the leading employer and contributor to economic activity.



What&#8217;s more, 60% of the world&#8217;s uncultivated arable land is in Africa, meaning there is huge potential for growth.



&#8220;It&#8217;s a win-win choice for China and Africa,&#8221; said Mei Xinyu of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think-tank under China&#8217;s Ministry of Commerce.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-trade-imbalances">TRADE IMBALANCES</h2>



For decades, China has loaned billions of dollars to Africa to build railroads, power plants and highways as it deepened ties with the continent while extracting minerals and oil.



That has helped China-Africa trade balloon 24-fold over the past two decades and two-way trade hit a record $254 billion last year despite the turmoil of the global pandemic.



But for $148 billion of Chinese goods shipped to Africa in 2021, China imported only $106 billion and five resource-rich nations &#8211; Angola, Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo South Africa and Zambia &#8211; accounted for $75 billion of that.



Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s most populous nation, is the top importer of Chinese goods, hoovering up $23 billion worth in 2021, but those imports dwarfed Nigeria&#8217;s exports to China by eight times.



The disparity is more stark in Uganda, where about 80% of its exports are agricultural products such as coffee, tea and cotton. It sent goods worth $44 million to China last year but its imports topped $1 billion.



Chinese customs data shows that more than three-quarters of African nations have trade deficits with Beijing.



Wu Peng, Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry&#8217;s Department of African Affairs, said such imbalances were unintentional.



&#8220;China has always been focusing on promoting the balanced development of China-Africa trade,&#8221; he told Reuters.



African leaders have been pushing for years for action on trade, said Hannah Ryder, founder of Development Reimagined, an African-owned development consultancy headquartered in Beijing.



The pandemic, meanwhile, sharpened their focus on debt. Some 60% of low-income countries &#8211; mostly in Africa &#8211; are either in debt distress or at high risk, with debt service burdens at their highest in 20 years.



&#8220;African countries were under pressure to not take on more lending,&#8221; Ryder said. &#8220;Trade is where (the Chinese) think they can do something.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">GREEN LANES</h2>



When it comes to food and agriculture, China&#8217;s imports were worth $13 billion two decades ago. By 2020, they had leapt to $161 billion but Africa only accounted for 2.6% of that.



China&#8217;s African Affairs chief Wu said harnessing that growth would ensure balanced trade, increase African employment opportunities and help the continent industrialise.



&#8220;(China) actively responded to the important concerns of African countries on China-Africa trade cooperation,&#8221; he said.



President Xi&#8217;s plan calls for centralised clearance zones, or &#8220;Green Lanes&#8221;, to speed up inspections of agricultural goods from Africa, more zero-tariff access and $10 billion in trade finance for Chinese firms importing from the continent.



On paper, China&#8217;s growing food needs present a huge opportunity for Africa to leverage agricultural exports to raise foreign exchange, said Lauren Johnston, visiting senior lecturer at University of Adelaide&#8217;s Institute of International Trade.



&#8220;The debt situation has brought it to the fore,&#8221; she said. &#8220;In the first instance it&#8217;s just a super logical investment.&#8221;



But some countries are struggling to take advantage of the opportunities, such as Kenya. It&#8217;s the biggest producer of avocados in Africa and exported $154 million worth last year, mainly to Europe.



Eric Were at the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service&#8217;s (Kephis) said they had jumped through hoops to get 10 avocado companies cleared this year for Chinese exports.



&#8220;For the Chinese, we need to inspect the orchard, we need to inspect the packhouse and we need to inspect the fumigation facilities,&#8221; he said.



He said Kakuzi, Kenya&#8217;s biggest avocado grower, spent a month showing it could track its produce from the seeds, to how trees are managed, and how the avocados are harvested, processed and packed. By contrast, the European Union only requires inspection at the point of exit, Were said.



Last month, the inspectorate announced that Chinese authorities had decided to conduct their own audits &#8211; which has not always been a positive experience next door in Uganda.



&#8220;When they come, quite often they find that we are not doing well,&#8221; Emmanuel Mutahunga, Uganda&#8217;s Commissioner for External Trade, told Reuters.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">RED LINES</h2>



Tanzanian coffee farmers have struggled to make their mark too while in Namibia, it took nine years from the signing of a beef export deal to satisfy Chinese regulators, leading to the first shipments in 2019.



Wu said China&#8217;s planned initiatives would help African farmers improve their quarantine and food safety capacity, though Mei and Johnston said any loosening of phytosanitary regulations for African imports was unlikely.



&#8220;There&#8217;s no bigger red line than China and food security,&#8221; Johnston said.



China is also missing out on other ways to accelerate access, say experts such as Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa.



He said Beijing could negotiate broad trade deals with African countries and regional blocs, as the EU does.



Instead, China continues to do bilateral deals, and even then only on individual products.



&#8220;The core message here is for China to be a bit more open to Africa&#8217;s food exports,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A lot of it&#8217;s going to have to come down to individual countries negotiating better deals.&#8221;



South Africa&#8217;s citrus industry was among the continent&#8217;s early trailblazers in China, signing its first protocol with Beijing in 2004. It exported 162,000 pallets of fruit in 2021, but success didn&#8217;t come overnight.



&#8220;It&#8217;s been an incredible market for SA citrus,&#8221; said Justin Chadwick, chief executive of the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa.



Yet Britain and the European Union, which have stringent food safety standards, are still by far the top destination for South African citrus, accounting for 44% of exports last year.



&#8220;When you want to go to China, you have to get a separate protocol for each agricultural product. It averages at about 10 years for each product&#8217;s protocol to be concluded,&#8221; Chadwick said. &#8220;Unfortunately, China does this one product at a time.&#8221;



(Duncan Miriri reported from Thika, Kenya, and Joe Bavier reported from Johannesburg; Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Ellen Zhang in Beijing, Nuzulack Dausen in Dar es Salaam, and Nyasha Nyaungwa in Windhoek; Editing by David Clarke)

STAM34GFNZP6JKOCXWSNUJXPFI

Africa’s dream of feeding China hits hard reality

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="484" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-820x484.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415655" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-820x484.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-300x177.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-153x90.jpg 153w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-768x453.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-1536x906.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BYYJJINYJBOSTHPHXYL6KBXAQ4-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Russian Rouble and U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken, February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration</figcaption></figure>



June 27 (Reuters) &#8211; A gauge of emerging market equities hit two-week highs on Monday, driven by cooling bets of big U.S. interest rate hikes and easing COVID-19 restrictions in China, while the rouble stayed volatile as Russia defaulted on its foreign sovereign bonds for the first time in decades.



The MSCI&#8217;s index of developing world stocks&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;rose 1.5% to its strongest level since June 13 before easing slightly.



The global mood got a lift after Wall Street&#8217;s strong rally on Friday as signs of slowing economic growth and a recent retreat in commodity prices led investors to question how high the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.&nbsp;.N



Meanwhile, heavyweight Chinese stock markets&nbsp;.CSI300,&nbsp;.SSEC&nbsp;gained as Shanghai&#8217;s top party boss declared victory over COVID-19 after the city reported no new local cases for the first time in two months.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YC02I&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Still, the emerging market (EM) stock index and its currencies counterpart&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;were heading for their worst quarter since the pandemic-driven rout in March 2020 as factors ranging from a strong dollar, aggressive interest rate hikes in developed world economies and surging inflation have driven investors to safer assets such as bonds and gold.



&#8220;The downward revision in U.S. long-term inflation expectation is helping improve the sentiment,&#8221; said Jakob Christensen, chief analyst, head of emerging market research at Danske Bank. &#8220;But we think it&#8217;s a bit early to call the trough in the market.&#8221;



The rouble&nbsp;RUBUTSTN=MCX&nbsp;firmed 0.3% to 53.2 per dollar, having shed 2% earlier in the session as Russia defaulted on its external debt for the first time in more than a century, although the Kremlin rejected the characterisation of events as a default.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YE06F&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AS8N2V30I8&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;The damage is already done in the sense of cutting off Russia from the global financial markets. It&#8217;s nothing like what we typically see in the EM space when a country defaults on the debt. It&#8217;s all priced in,&#8221; added Christensen.



Russia has struggled to keep up payments on $40 billion of outstanding bonds, hit by sweeping global sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.



The Group of Seven rich democracies will finalise plans for a price cap on Russian oil, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2YE1L9&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Turkish lira&nbsp;TRYTOM=D3&nbsp;strengthened about 2% to trade at 16.72 per dollar after Turkey moved to restrict lira lending to many companies with more than $1 million in foreign currency cash in the latest step to reverse a slide in the currency.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2YB4QG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The lira, among the worst performing currencies this year, hit a one-month high at 16.03 per dollar earlier in the session, before paring gains.



&#8220;With this rule, the BRSA (Turkey&#8217;s Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority) is basically saying to firms: sell your FX now; buy later in the spot market if you need it for debt redemptions or raw-material purchases,&#8221; Ercan Erguzel, an economist at Barclays said in a note.



&#8220;We see a risk that foreign lenders might be reluctant to fully roll over existing debt. Medium term, we do not expect the new measure to be positive for FX liquidity or investment.&#8221;



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%3ATOPEMRG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in BengaluruEditing by Mark Potter)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows Russian Rouble and U.S. Dollar banknotes

EM stocks climb as U.S. rate hike fears ease, rouble volatile as Russia defaults on foreign debt

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="604" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-820x604.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-413245" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-820x604.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-300x221.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-122x90.jpg 122w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-768x566.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-1536x1131.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President, African Development Bank (AfDB)
World Economic Forum | Kigali, 12 May 2016
Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



KIGALI, June 23 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa must wean itself off dependence on food and medicine imports, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said, as the institution approved creation of a pharmaceutical tech foundation and began processing requests for food relief.



Africa was hit hard by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Now, as many countries are still struggling to rebound, they are facing rising inflation and food shortages aggravated by the war in Ukraine.



&#8220;Africa should not allow itself to be vulnerable in excessively depending on others, whether it is for vaccines or whether it is for food,&#8221; AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Kigali.



&#8220;The fact is that when you are dependent on others, you are also very highly vulnerable to any shock of any kind.&#8221;



The bank last month approved a $1.5 billion financing facility for emergency food production, with the aim of averting a looming food crisis. The funds are meant to help 20 million farmers produce 38 million tonnes of food. <a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2XC3W4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-world-bank-approves-2-3-billion-plan-for-eastern-and-southern-africa-to-tackle-food-insecurity"> Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/world-bank-approves-2-3-billion-plan-for-eastern-and-southern-africa-to-tackle-food-insecurity/">World Bank approves $2.3 billion plan for Eastern and Southern Africa to tackle food insecurity</a></h3>



Adesina said the bank had already received requests from countries to draw on the fund.



&#8220;Once those things come to our board, they are swiftly reviewed and approved, and the money is out at the door,&#8221; he said.



Meanwhile, the AfDB&#8217;s board this week approved the creation of a new Africa Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.



Adesina said the foundation would allow Africa to leverage intellectual property rights, protected technologies and innovations to expand Africa&#8217;s pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing sectors.



&#8220;Africa imports 80% to 90% of all its medicines for a population of 1.3 billion people. We cannot and we must not outsource the health security of Africa to the benevolence of others,&#8221; he said.



The World Trade Organization last week agreed on a partial waiver of intellectual property rights to allow developing countries to produce and export COVID-19 vaccines.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2Y400M&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Editing by Joe Bavier and Bradley Perrett)

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Africa must end food, pharma import dependence, AfDB president says

<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-1237649604-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417697" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1237649604-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>The seal for the International Monetary Fund is seen near the World Bank headquarters (R) in Washington, DC on January 10, 2022. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, June 22 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;World Bank has approved a $2.3 billion programme for Eastern and Southern African countries to help them tackle food insecurity, the bank said in a statement.



The bank said an estimated 66.4 million people in the region were forecast to experience food stress or a food crisis, emergency, or famine by July.



This is a developing story&#8230;



(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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World Bank approves $2.3 billion plan for Eastern and Southern Africa to tackle food insecurity

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="546" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-820x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412243" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-820x546.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20351421759_9900ccaad9_k.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Farm, Vioolsdrift, Northern Cape, South Africa
Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



June 20 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Fertilizer manufacturer Omnia Holdings&nbsp;OMNJ.J&nbsp;says African governments are increasing support for smallholder farmers amid fears that input costs, driven higher after Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine, could cut crop production and worsen food insecurity.



Omnia supplies fertilizer to both commercial and smallholder farmers in several sub-Saharan African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania.



The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, major fertilizer exporters, has accelerated price increases first triggered by COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions. According to Omnia, prices of fertilizer input materials have gone up by between 200% and 400% since January 2021.



Aid agencies have warned that rising input prices could force Africa&#8217;s smallholder farmers to reduce plantings of staple grains such as maize, worsening a food crisis in a region where millions have already been plunged into extreme poverty by COVID-19, armed conflicts and climate shocks.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WV5UH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Omnia Holdings chief executive officer Seelan Gobalsamy told Reuters in an interview that fears of fertilizer shortages as a result of the conflict were driving demand ahead of the planting season.



&#8220;We see governments, countries across the world being concerned about food security. Everybody wants security of supply of fertilizer and that drives up prices, it also raises concerns about food security in the coming period,&#8221; Gobalsamy said.



&#8220;What we’re seeing is a lot more support from governments for the smaller farmers, to aid those farmers because they have two roles &#8211; a subsistence role and a commercial role,&#8221; he added, referring to African governments.



On Monday, Omnia reported 21.437 billion rand ($1.34 billion) revenues in the full year to March 31, a 30% increase compared to the same period last year, driven by higher commodity prices and sales. Headline earnings per share &#8211; the main profit measure in South Africa &#8211; were 86% up at 6.72 rand compared to last year.



($1 = 16.0023 rand)



(Reporting by Nelson Banya, Editing by William Maclean)

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Africa must end food, pharma import dependence, AfDB president says

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Omnia sees Africa increasing farm input support amid food security fears

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