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Thursday 29th of May 2014 |
Morning Africa |
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If you are tracking the NSE Do it via RICHLIVE and use Mozilla Firefox as your Browser. 0930-1500 KENYA TIME Normal Board - The Whole shebang Prompt Board Next day settlement Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock. |
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Government of Mozambique and the IMF conference May 29th-30th @IMFNews Africa |
The Government of Mozambique and the IMF will convene a high-level conference in 2014 to take stock of Africa's strong economic performance, its increased resilience to shocks, and the key ongoing economic policy challenges. The Africa Rising conference will be held May 29-30, 2014, in Maputo. The event is intended to follow up on the 2009 Tanzania Conference, which helped galvanize international support for Africa after the 2008 financial crisis.
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Calling millennials the "most engaged, altruistic, informed, technically advanced and entrepreneurial" generation in history, Coke's chairman and CEO Africa |
"Never before has a generation had more promise, potential or power to change the world for the better," he told the graduates. "I believe in you... you have the head and the heart (to go far)."
Here are 10 pieces of advice Kent shared with the class of 2014:
1. Nothing is more important than personal relationships. "Never eat alone, never stop making new friendships, and never stop nurturing those you have."
2. Stay humble. "Carry your own bags, literally and metaphorically."
3. Remember that one-time success can be a fluke. "Repeating success proves your worth."
4. Build an abiding respect for cash. "Keep some on you at all times. Never let money become an abstraction."
5. Learn something new every day.
6. Keep growing. "Everyone needs growth: nations, companies, individuals. You're either growing or you are losing ground. There's no standing still."
7. Take care of the job at hand. "The next one will take care of itself."
8. Reject doubt, fear and cynicism. "All three are corrosive. Instead, whatever you do, do with all you have. That will make all the difference."
9. Remember that a commencement is not an ending, but a beginning. "The door to the future is swung wide before you. Step through with confidence and purpose."
10. There's no substitute for excellence and quality. "Pursue both relentlessly."
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Easing Egypt Debt Risk Shows Investors Favor El-Sisi Victory Africa |
To gauge how Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's likely victory in this week's Egyptian presidential election is winning over investors, look no further than the country's creditworthiness.
The cost of insuring the nation's debt fell to the lowest since July 2011 this month, according to data provider CMA. It was at 348 basis points today, about half its level in the run-up to the 2012 presidential race, in which the Islamist Mohamed Mursi beat 12 contenders into office.
Since Mursi was ousted July 3, the military-backed interim government has attracted billions of dollars in aid from the Persian Gulf and has promised reforms to cut the Middle East's highest budget deficit and boost investment. Egypt's default-swap contracts, now priced at about half for those of similarly-rated Pakistan, may signal improving investor sentiment and better prospects for the most populous Arab state to tap international capital markets.
"Investors view an El-Sisi win as a near certainty that would bring about more stability in Egypt and, going forward, this can generate some sort of economic resurgence," Farouk Soussa, London-based chief Middle East economist at Citigroup Global Markets Ltd., said by phone May 22. "The way they see Egypt is that it's going to give you a decent return and is less likely now to blow up in your face."
The yield on the government's 5.75 percent Eurobonds due in April 2020 fell less than one basis point to 4.96 percent as of 2:46 p.m. in Cairo, the lowest since December 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The benchmark EGX 30 Index of stocks slipped 0.3 percent yesterday from an almost six-year high, paring gains in the past six months to 40 percent, the best performing equity gauge worldwide after Dubai, the data show. The stock market is closed today for a public holiday announced by the government last night to encourage people to vote.
The commission in charge of supervising the election extended voting by one hour to 10 p.m. today, saying they may keep stations open beyond that if necessary "depending on conditions at each polling station."
Unofficial results are expected to start streaming in overnight as vote counts are completed at each station. The official result will be announced by June 5, Nile News reported today.
Egypt's economy will probably grow 2.5 percent this year, up from 2.1 percent in 2013, according the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have pledged about $15 billion in aid.
"Aid inflows from the Gulf have substantially improved Egypt's debt fundamentals, as have the ever more convincing signs that a new political order is finally coalescing," Simon Williams, chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa at HSBC Holdings Plc in Dubai, said by phone yesterday. "Should that be reversed, that will necessarily reflect on the country's credit fundamentals."
The extra yield investors demand to own Egypt's dollar debt rather than U.S. Treasuries dropped five basis points to 349 on May 22, the lowest level since August 2011, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes. Egypt's dollar bonds have returned 14 percent this year, compared with a 7.3 percent average gain for developing nations worldwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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28-APR-2014 Rising Fiscal Imbalance is Region's Achilles Heel Africa |
3. Rising fiscal imbalances in some countries. This for me remains the Achilles' Heel. The IMF said: "In a few cases, policy missteps, such as large fiscal imbalances, threaten to undermine the hard-won macroeconomic gains of recent years that have supported growth. In addition, important home-grown risks arise from fiscal vulnerabilities in a number of countries such as Ghana and Zambia.'' Ghana's cedi has been in free-fall and the Zambian kwacha not far behind. The price the markets are exacting for 'policy mis- steps' is brutal. 4. Security conditions remain difficult, in some areas threatening spill-over effects. The IMF has focused on the dreadful situation in South Sudan and in Central African Republic, but I would also raise the red flag around the risks posed by the likes of al-Shabaab and the Boko Haram whose leader Abubakar Shekar taunted President Goodluck Jonathan with the comment ''I am in your city.'' The main downside risk to this generally positive baseline scenario is the risk that growth in emerging markets might slow much more abruptly than currently envisaged.
My takeaway is; the tailwinds remain favourable but that the markets are no longer as benign and that we would be wise to look very closely how policy makers are getting crunched in places like Ghana. A more than 30 per cent collapse in a currency is a direct cause-and-effect of poor policy making. Putting Humpty Dumpty together again is not an easy thing.
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"It doesn't seem to me the government really has a handle on what is going on," Rashid Abdi, an independent Horn of Africa said by phone from Nairobi. Kenyan Economy |
"All these dodgy deals, and much else, have failed to make Kenya less vulnerable to terrorism," he said by phone from Sevenoaks, England. "The terrorists have got more sophisticated, while the state has just become more bloated."
Kenya's direct involvement in the civil war in Somalia started in October 2011 when it sent troops to the Horn of African nation after a series of kidnappings and the murder of a British tourist in northern Kenya, which the militants said they didn't carry out. At the time, the Kenyan army said it planned to end its intervention by that Christmas.
"It wasn't clear what they wanted; now they almost own the entire Somalia problem," Salim said. "I don't see them exiting any time soon, but I don't see how they're going to get out of this mess."
Abdi said real reform in the intelligence and security services is vital.
"Foreign governments are frustrated at the government, but even within the Kenyan security services these people feel helpless," Abdi said. "They are not getting anywhere. Officers who are doing this job are not happy, they feel demoralized."
Conclusions
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19-MAY-2014 The Dash-Board is Blinking Amber Kenyan Economy |
Don DeLillo writes in Point Omega;
''When you strip away surfaces, when you see into it, what's left is terror. This is the thing that literature was meant to cure. The epic poem, the bedtime story."
Disbelief can be suspended, of course but eventually we reach a Marx Brothers in duck soup moment.
''Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?''
And if you mine social media like I do, you will know that duck soup moment was crossed during Westgate. And continuing resolutely down this path is eroding political capital. "Look at the world around you. It may seem like an im- movable, implacable place. It is not, with the slightest push - in just the right place - it can be tipped." Malcolm Gladwell. Everything is looking ex- tremely fragile.
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