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Browsing: GDP growth
- The IMF has approved an expansion of the original economic rescue program for Egypt by $5 billion.
- Spillovers from the recent conflict in Gaza and Israel aggravated the shaky economic situation in Egypt.
- Egypt has recently taken difficult but necessary reforms to correct the country’s microeconomic imbalance.
IMF’s Economic Rescue Program for Egypt
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the first and second reviews of Egypt’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF)arrangement, approving an expansion of the original economic rescue program by $5 billion.
The IMF had initially approved a $3 billion loan in December 2022 but has …
- East African cities dominate the top five performing cities, including Kampala, Antananarivo, Mwanza, and Dar Es Salaam.
- While Sub-Saharan cities are expected to witness marginal gains in productivity compared to global counterparts
- Despite currently being the second-largest region by aggregate city GDP, the report forecasts that the South will be overtaken by the East African Cities by 2050.
East African cities are poised for strong economic growth between 2024 and 2050, outpacing other regions on the continent, an analysis by Oxford Economics has shown.
The report indicates that these cities will experience an average GDP growth rate of 3.5 per cent annually, primarily fueled by significant inflows of foreign direct investment and strategic initiatives the East African Community (EAC) implemented to bolster sectors such as business services and manufacturing.
In contrast, Southern African cities are anticipated to face the weakest outlook, with a projected GDP growth rate of 1.7 per …
Economies the world over have made significant recoveries from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict and disruptive supply chains with positive growth recorded in 2022.
Many of these key economies are in Africa.
However, majority of the African continent remains highly exposed to risks that could hinder growth in 2023.
One of the major concerns is debt serving, where African nation’s debt as a percentage of GDP has been rising faster than expected over the past decade.
It is estimated on average that most African nations’ Debt to GDP ratio, as of 2022, stands at 24.1 per cent with some countries having even higher rates.
About 35 per cent of the continent’s external debt is owed to banks, asset managers and oil traders in the West, with Chinese lenders accounting for around 12 per cent.
Of the about $444 billion in debt repayments governments in the continent will
… 
Trends suggest Kenya has outstanding resilience due to the quick bounce seen after the last election. Analysts believe the future leader must actively concentrate on transformation to allow the coupling of infrastructure investments to overall sustainability.
The future administration must establish legislation supporting political stability and social harmony to unleash industrial sector development. The adjustments will generate jobs, attract international investors, and lessen import dependency.…
Yet for SME and corporate lending, credit decisions remain an extended process as information is gathered manually and appraised over, sometimes, weeks, to establish the creditworthiness of the borrower.
The need to abandon such cumbersome processes has recently seen leading banks adopt technology, such as our CreditQuest, to automate credit origination, and manage credit workflow, appraisals, documents, customer ratings and credit decisions.
This kind of technology draws all current and historical credit data onto a unified platform, giving the bank’s analysts a true single customer view of credits and collaterals.…
Just days after Kenya repealed a rate cap which portends the return of expensive loans for borrowers, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited the country to “discuss economic development”.
The IMF has held that the country’s real GDP growth averaged 5.6 per cent in the first half of 2019 and is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2019 and 2020.
It adds, “Inflation has remained within the target band and stood at 5.0 per cent in October (year-on-year).”
The IMF visit to Kenya
A staff team from the IMF led by Benedict Clements, visited Kenya from November 18-22, 2019, to among other things discuss “recent economic developments and the government’s reform plans”.
Another mission is planned in early 2020 to hold discussions on a new precautionary stand-by arrangement and undertake the Article IV consultation discussions.
According to the team, Kenya’s economy has continued to perform well.
At the …