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 of 1.8 per cent despite the negative repercussions caused by Covid-19.

He also added that in the same period, the country was also able to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 87 per cent compared to the 90.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2019 and 108 per cent …

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 these two months, trade growth was particularly strong in Covid-19 related products which showed trade’s ability to help governments obtain needed supplies.

“Conversely, the forecast for next year is more pessimistic than the previous estimate of 21.3 per cent growth, leaving merchandise trade well below its pre-pandemic trend in 2021” …

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 end of June this year.

“We are very pleased with this historic development for Jubilee Insurance. Over the past decade, we have been approached by a number of international insurers looking to partner with Jubilee to expand into East Africa. With Allianz, we have now identified a partner whose …

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 the exchange rates of all global currencies and is the largest financial market in the world with daily transactions of $6.6 trillion. Forex trading has high liquidity, operates 24-hours, has low transactions costs, easy to use platforms and has fast-paced regulations.

In the past foreign exchange market was limited to …

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 961,666 in the first quarter.

The unemployment figure is however further aggravated by a rise in the number of the long-term unemployed(individuals with continuous periods of unemployment extending for one year or longer) and individuals outside the labour force which masks the unemployed statistics.

source: tradingeconomics.com

The long-term unemployed increased …

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

1. Log in to iTax

Visit https://itax.kra.go.ke/KRA-Portal. On the left, you will see an empty tab, enter your KRA pin or your ID and click on continue.

Enter your password and a key to answer the Security Stamp question. In case you have forgotten your password click on the forgotten password and follow the steps to reset it.

2. Select File

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 million jobs directly, and between 20 million and 33 million jobs overall when considering the indirect macroeconomic effects,” the fund said in its latest Fiscal Monitor.

IMF said that in the period of high uncertainty, increasing public investment by 1 per cent of GDP could strengthen confidence in the recovery …

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. We expect global output to remain well below our pre-pandemic projections over the medium term. For almost all countries, this will be a setback to the improvement of living standards.” She said

She added that now the projections are less dire as central banks and fiscal measures have given a powerful injection of liquidity in …

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.

Also Read: Uganda’s trade deficit and exports in 2020

It is the second instalment of the German-African cooperation-focused webinar series which are under the theme of investment and trade for African economic development.

The panel comprised of NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, and Rene Awambeng, …

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 High Commission witnessed the signing.

The statement also said that the project would improve Ghana’s transport links whilst creating skilled jobs for local people across the country.

“The significant strengthening of Ghana’s road system shows the UK-Ghana partnership at its best; a long-term partnership working for the long-term benefit of …