Tag Archives: economy

Butembo, DR Congo | AFP | The question is so absurd that Butembo’s deputy mayor misses a beat before answering. What is the town’s unemployment rate? “Unemployment is the norm around these parts,” says Godefroid Kambere Matimbya. “There aren’t any businesses.” Butembo is no ghost town, but a city of …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  Nigeria’s economic slump sharpened in the third quarter as rebels bombed oil pipelines in the restive south and businesses struggled to access foreign exchange, official data showed Monday. The third quarterly contraction in a row comes as the West African nation reels from a crash …

Colombo, SRI LANKA | AFP |  Sri Lanka’s economy has begun to stabilise after securing a $1.5 billion bailout earlier this year, but the island needs to build its dwindling foreign reserves, the IMF said Saturday. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund said it had just concluded its first review of …

New Delhi, India | AFP |  India announced new measures Thursday to allow farmers and marrying couples to withdraw more money from banks, as frustration mounted over a cash crisis triggered by the withdrawal of all high-value notes. The shock move last week, which saw 85 percent of the cash …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was sacked Tuesday and put under house arrest on suspicion of pocketing a two-million-dollar bribe in a deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. Ulyukayev is the highest ranking official detained over suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in …

Kathmandu, Nepal | AFP |  Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi Tuesday to find out how Nepalis could exchange Indian rupees they hold in the now banned denominations. The two countries share a long border and close cultural ties, and many Nepalis hold large …

The economy isn’t in such a bad shape as earlier thought, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said in its latest assessment. Speaking at the conclusion of a two-week’s 7th review of Uganda’s economic programme under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI), Axel Schimmelpfennig, the IMF Mission chief, said the country’s prospects …

Mumbai, India | AFP | Months of planning by a select few sworn to secrecy and then cash-laden trucks on the streets. But this was no bank robbery — rather an audacious plan to issue new notes across India. There are 1.25 billion people in India but only a handful …

New Delhi, India | AFP | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation on Tuesday in a shock announcement designed to tackle widespread corruption and tax evasion. Modi said that while people could exchange their old notes for new bills at …

Better business climate Uganda’s ranking in the 2017 World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business has improved by seven places, a development that shows that ongoing business environment reforms being implemented by the government are starting to bear fruit. Uganda now ranks 115th out of the 190 assessed economies, which is …