Browsing: inflation

According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, North Africa has been rocked by protests more than any other region on the continent, even though it recorded the greatest improvements in wealth. The continent started experiencing unrest during the 2007-2008 global financial crunch. In North Africa, human development is dwarfed by the demand for greater political, civil and economic freedom. Governments in these regions have been accused of being authoritarian.

Have the protests been successful? In Tunisia, for instance, the country has transitioned to democracy. However, people’s expectations have not been met fully as the new democracy is more electoral than substantive and real institutional reform is yet to occur. Notable reforms have taken place in Algeria and Egypt, but Libya, brought down to its knees by the Arab spring, has yet to recover and has fallen into civil strife.

In Sierra Leone, the New York Times reported …

Every African region has felt the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with West Africa also bearing the burden of a war miles away in Europe.

• At a period when West Africa has been facing a severe food crisis since 2011, the Ukraine conflict has complicated matters further.
• For most West African nations, the expenses of regulating rising prices are already too high.
• The West African economic crisis and the Russia-Ukraine scenario highlight the perilous linkages between diplomatic sanctions, commerce, and food security.

Africa’s post-Covid recovery hampered

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has hampered Africa’s potential recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by raising food and fuel costs, interrupting the trade of services and goods, constricting fiscal space, limiting green transitions, and slowing the flow of development funding across the continent.

The crisis has jeopardized homes, communities, and nations across Africa. Before 2020, African countries were among the world’s fastest-growing. The COVID-19 pandemic …

The practical implementation of the AfCFTA, the expanding middle class, the evolving consumer market, enhanced use of financial technology and services, and the efficiency of the vibrant private sector will all be enablers of African export diversification and long-term economic growth.…

• The economy is now projected to grow by 4.6% during 2022, a downward revision from the original 5.5% projection
• Reserve money stock has increased to ZW$33.6 billion as of June 30, 2022.
• Merchandise exports and imports increased by 33% and 15% to US$3 516.5 million and US$3 746.8 million. Exports are expected to reach US$7.3 billion
• The country is doing well in terms of budget transparency and is now ranked third in Africa, after South Africa and Benin.

Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube, presented the 2022 supplementary budget on Thursday amid skyrocketing inflation that has since eroded this year’s national budget.

This is the first time that Minister Ncube has presented a supplementary budget since he was appointed Finance Minister by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018.

The economy is now projected to grow by 4.6% during 2022, a downward revision from the original 5.5% projection, and follows …

The most significant concern is Africa’s susceptibility to growing inflation in developed and developing economies, given the continent’s reliance on imports.…

President Mnangagwa said his Government is convinced that the recent exchange rate movements were driven by negative sentiments by economic agents as opposed to economic fundamentals.

“These negative sentiments have been propagating adverse expectations on future inflation and exchange rate movements, thus giving rise to artificially high demand for foreign currency as economic agents hedge against expected high inflation,” he added.

The Government listed measures that are expected to restore macroeconomic stability, support the current robust economic recovery trajectory, boost economic confidence, increase the appeal of the local currency, preserve value for depositors and investors and deal with market indiscipline.…

Rising demand has pushed oil prices to a rising trend which may, in the long run, prove to be unsustainable. Food price inflation has reportedly reached the highest level since 2011. Further compounding the problem for households and businesses is the fact that in the United States consumer inflation has reached 5.5 per cent annually which is the highest it has been in 31 years.

Companies operating in Africa and the rest of the world need to consider these developments into their expectations and decisions. The question is how? How can companies inflation-proof, as it were, their finances to protect their viability?

Cash is always king in times of uncertainty and inflation. There are six ways that companies are well-advised to adapt to …

If you received your salary on the 1st of January in ZWL, you would struggle to pay for goods and services in February. This volatile situation results in consumers seeing value eroded from their bank balances at an astonishing rate.

We see wages struggle to keep up with inflation, a phenomenon similar to 2008. Most people buy USD from the black market to retain some semblance of value in these balances.

Zimbabwe has a currency crisis, and the Authorities seem to be struggling to deal with it. The rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar is depreciating signifies the state of the economy. Much of this is being blamed on the countries foreign currency auction system.…

The KNBS report shows that the price of onions (leeks and bulbs), white bread, cooking oil (salad) and tomatoes increased by 7.46, 4.71, 4.62 and 4.55 per cent, respectively, in December 2021. Interestingly, these are the most basic household food items you will find in most homes.

When prices go up as much as they have done, it means that most households will either have to find alternatives or make do without these basic food items altogether.

In an election year, this is not something that Kenyans are prepared for especially with the decimation of job opportunities and livelihoods caused by the pandemic.

On another front, the country faces further hardships as consumer power declines. With food becoming scarce, the country is in dire straits already. Food production in Kenya is far behind demand. …

In the first six months of the year, Kenya’s food imports had increased to sh103.34 billion. The figures collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) showed that the food imports were sh12.35 billion more than the amount spent in the same period in 2020.

According to data from the national treasury, import expenditure increased by 29 per cent in the third quarter of 2021. China is the most significant contributor of Kenyan imports accounting for 31.6 per cent of the total bill from the Asian continent.

This is the fastest growth in the food import bill since a 60 per cent jump recorded in 2016 when the bill stood at sh82.83 billion. The exponential increase has been linked to the growing popularity of digital trading, allowing retailers and consumers to order and ship food and other commodities directly.…