Tax codes written for an analog economy and statistics that fail to capture real wealth won’t do COMMENT | MARGARETA DRZENIEK-HANOUZ | Before the threat of a US-China trade war arose, surging stock markets and corporate profits had obscured the fact that the global economic system is under existential stress. Global …
Read More »Saudi to supply oil to fuel-starved Sudan: minister
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Saudi Arabia will supply Sudan with millions of tonnes of oil for the next five years to help it tackle a growing energy crisis, the African country’s oil minister said Monday. Sudan has been hit with an acute fuel crisis for weeks now, sending black …
Read More »Sudan fuel shortage hikes black market prices
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Black market fuel prices surged on Saturday in Khartoum and other Sudanese towns as petrol and diesel shortages forced residents to queue for hours outside gas stations. Fuel supplies began dwindling in early April, with officials blaming maintenance delays at a key refinery, although foreign …
Read More »Bashir closes 13 Sudanese diplomatic missions: state media
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the closure of 13 Sudanese overseas missions and job cuts at the foreign ministry due to an economic crisis in his country, state media reported Thursday. Bashir’s order comes days after he fired foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour after he said …
Read More »Macron says will scrap ‘exit tax’ on high-earners
Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron intends to scrap a 30 percent “exit tax” on top-earners who transfer their assets outside of France, in a bid to boost the attractiveness of the country for foreign investors. The levy was introduced in 2012 under former rightwing president Nicolas …
Read More »Angola looks beyond crude oil to fish oil
Benguela, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Joao Lourenco has named diversifying the oil-dependent economy as his top priority after he became the country’s first new leader in 38 years. And one natural and readily available resource that has been identified is fish — but a lack of equipment and …
Read More »Marx at 200: Germany torn over revolutionary’s legacy
Trier, Germany | AFP | As Germany prepares to mark Karl Marx’s 200th birth anniversary, the revolutionary philosopher’s legacy remains divisive more than a quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With scars from the Cold War still fresh, people from capitalist former West Germany and the once …
Read More »Maduro raises minimum wage again as Venezuela battles hyperinflation
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday he was almost doubling the minimum wage in an effort to tackle the crisis-wracked Latin American country’s runaway inflation. Venezuela’s economic collapse ranks as one of the worst in modern history, with hyperinflation likely to see prices soaring 13,000 percent …
Read More »Long battle to stop firms bribing Africa for contracts
Paris, France | AFP | A spectacular probe into French tycoon Vincent Bollore over suspected graft in Africa marks a rare exception among corporate titans doing business south of the Sahara. Bollore — charged on Wednesday over contracts to operate ports in Guinea and Togo — is by far the …
Read More »Mozambique cracks open its cashews to boost the economy
Nampula, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique is going nuts about cashews, and they’re boosting the economy’s health. The country’s cashew nut industry, one of the world’s biggest, was dealt a body blow first by the 1977-1992 civil war and then by a controversial World Bank assistance package. Now, the government …
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