Author: Caroline Muriuki

Egypt maintained its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 3.6 per cent during the last fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, despite the economic challenges presented by the pandemic, according to Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait. The minister’s remarks came during his participation in virtual meetings organised by Bank of America during the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fall meetings. Minister Maait said that Egypt was able to reduce its deficit–to-GDP ratio to 7.9 per cent in FY 2019/20, compared to the 8.2 per cent recorded in FY 2018/19. At the end of June 2020, Egypt also achieved a primary surplus…

The World Trade Organization (WTO) forecasts a decline in the volume of world merchandise by 9.2 per cent in 2020 and 7.2 per cent in 2021. According to a press lease from the WTO, it said that the estimated are subjects to “an unusually high degree of uncertainty” since they depend on how the government will respond to the pandemic. This decline is less than WTO’s forecast in April of 12.9 per cent in the optimistic scenario. June and July showed a strong trade scenario which brought some optimistic signs for overall trade growth this year. According to WTO, in…

Jubilee Holdings Ltd announced it is selling between 51 per cent to 66 per cent stake of its operating subsidiaries engaged in short term general insurance business across the region to Allianz Group for about $99.35 million. The regional insurer is selling its general insurance units in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius and Burundi while retaining full ownership of its life and health insurance businesses except in Burundi and Mauritius. Jubilee insurance chairperson Nizar Juma said that the operating subsidiaries are subjects to transaction accounts which are only 12.3 per cent of its combined net assets worth 297.13 million as at…

Forex trading is the buying or selling of currency on the international currency market. Forex trading aims at extracting profits from the price movements of the currencies. Therefore, forex traders aim to make money from buying a currency at a low price or exchange rate and selling at a higher price. It involves two currencies while the trade is facilitated by a forex broker. Traders often use margin trading to speculate on currencies, risk factors increase due to the involvement of leverage and margins which leads traders to risk even more than their invested amount. Forex Trading Forex trading determines…

Kenya’s unemployment rate doubled between April and June as 1,716,604 Kenyans lost jobs in this period according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). According to the KNBS quarterly labour report, the number of those who have jobs (employed) shrunk to 15.9 million from a high of  17.8 million in Mach. The unemployment rate in Kenya now stands at 10.4 per cent from 5.2 per cent in March with the employment to population ratio decreasing from 64.4 per cent to 57.7 per cent. The number of people without jobs increased by 58.6 per cent to 1.8 million people from…

How to File nil returns in Kenya A nil income tax return is filed to show the Income Tax Department that you fall below the taxable income and therefore did not pay taxes during the year, according to ClearTax. According to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) by the end of June 2019, it collected Ksh 1.580 trillion as opposed to the targeted Ksh 1.435 trillion projected by the Treasury. Requirements for filling KRA Nile Returns Your KRA pin and your iTax account. How to file nil returns in Kenya Log in to iTax Visit https://itax.kra.go.ke/KRA-Portal. On the left, you will…

Governments should increase public investments to boost their economies after the massive shock from the Covid-19 according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In June the IMF predicted a contraction of 4.9 per cent in global GDP for 2020 but the fall could be even higher as many governments are now dealing with the second wave of infections. The IMF is now calling on governments to increase public investments so as to aid economic recovery and create jobs. “For advanced and emerging market economies … Increasing public investment by 1 per cent of GDP in these economies would create 7…

The global public debt will record a high of 100 per cent to GDP in 2020 according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. Kristalina Georgieva was speaking during a virtual press conference entitled “Overcoming the Crisis and Building a More Resilient Economy.” “The picture today is less dire, as we now estimate that developments in the second and third quarters (Q2 and Q3) were somewhat better than expected, allowing for a small upward revision to our global forecast for 2020. We continue to project a partial and uneven recovery in 2021. (https://www.propertyspecialistsinc.com) We expect global output…

Africa trade and investment cooperation, To drive Africa’s development, available workforce, access to markets and transport, investment and business climate, energy and technological infrastructure have been cited as key factors set to boost the continent. Africa trade and investment cooperation, This statement was said by Günter Nooke, the Africa Envoy to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the “Investment and Trade for Africa’s Economic Development” public webinar co-hosted by the Germany-Africa Business Forum (GABF), Africa Oil & Power and the African Energy Chamber. The German-African cooperation-focused webinar aims to show opportunities for sustainable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between Germany and Africa.…

The United Kingdom partnership  with Ghana brought in £80.3 million to build a new major road system, creating jobs and building expertise across Ghana. A statement issued by the British High Commission in Accra said the partnership aims to build the Tema-Aflao highway agreed between BHM Construction International, a British company and the Ministry of Roads and Highways. According to the statement, the more than 500 Ghanaians will be employed by the Tema to Aflao project, which forms part of the ECOWAS coastal expressway. The Ministry of Roads and Highways signed a contract with BHM Construction International and the British…