Washington, United States | AFP | Crude oil prices are expected to jump 23 percent this year amid strong economic growth, while metals prices are rising, hit by ongoing trade tensions, the World Bank said Tuesday. The World Bank raised its forecast for oil prices to an average of $65 a …
Read More »India tops world remittance payments, Uganda at $1.3 billion
Remittance payments hit record in 2017: World Bank Washington, United States | AFP | Payments from immigrants back to their home countries rebounded to reach a new record in 2017 but the costs of transferring funds also increased, the World Bank said Monday. Uganda’s remittance inflows improved from $1.1 billion …
Read More »World Bank shareholders approve $13 bln capital increase
Washington, United States | AFP | World Bank shareholders approved a “historic” increase in the bank’s lending capacity Saturday after the United States backed a reform package that curbs loans and charges more for higher income countries like China. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said neither China nor any …
Read More »Minister’s ouster unlikely to slow Sudan’s push to get off US ‘terror’ list
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | President Omar al-Bashir’s dismissal of Sudan’s foreign minister, Khartoum’s top negotiator with Washington, is unlikely to affect efforts to have Khartoum removed from a US “terrorism” blacklist, experts say. On Thursday, Bashir sacked Ibrahim Ghandour, who headed negotiations with Washington that in October helped lift …
Read More »IMF’s Lagarde warns against harming trade, investment
Washington, United States | AFP | With US-China frictions hanging over its annual meeting, the International Monetary Fund on Thursday warned governments to avoid harming trade and investment which have been key drivers of the global economic recovery. IMF chief Christine Lagarde said escalating trade tensions could reverberate through the world …
Read More »Bashir fires Sudan foreign minister: state media
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday fired Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, state media reported, after he said that Sudanese diplomats abroad had been unpaid for months. In a speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, Ghandour, who negotiated the lifting of decades-old sanctions with Washington in October 2017, …
Read More »Angola passes law to attract foreign investment
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola on Thursday passed a law scrapping rules that previously forced foreign investors to partner with local firms, as President Joao Lourenco tries to revive the oil-dependant economy. Lourenco has vowed to pull in foreign investment after he succeeded Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who had ruled …
Read More »Zimbabwe warns strikes threaten economic recovery
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe warned Thursday that a string of strikes threatened efforts to revive the economy after the ousting of Robert Mugabe, as a stand-off with striking nurses deepened. The government on Tuesday sacked the majority of 15,000 nurses who started industrial action this week shortly after …
Read More »Oil theft ‘costing Libya over $750 mn annually’
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Fuel smuggling is costing Libya more than $750 million each year and harming its economy and society, the head of the National Oil Company in the conflict-riddled country said. “The impact of fuel smuggling is destroying the fabric of the country,” NOC president Mustafa Sanalla …
Read More »COMMENT: WhatsApp tax and democracy
How progressive is Uganda’s tax code for an economy that has been hurting since 2016? COMMENT | MORRISON RWAKAKAMBA | As we approach the 2018/2019 Financial Year and the statecraft colour that comes with it – the State of the Nation address and reading of the national budget; the dress rehearsals …
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