Global oil markets are shifting beneath the weight of economic uncertainties and a surging wave of electric vehicle (EV) adoption. In its May Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that, after a surprisingly robust first quarter, demand growth for the remainder of 2025 will cool materially signaling a pivotal moment for producers, […]
Moody’s Investors Service has elevated the City of Cape Town’s long-term local-currency issuer rating from Ba3 to Ba2, bringing it just one notch below South Africa’s sovereign rating of Ba1. This milestone reflects Cape Town’s disciplined financial governance, robust liquidity, and a cautiously improving economic outlook—despite the broader challenges facing the national economy (Engineering News, […]
Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), the country’s leading power producer, has announced plans to develop a KSh 17 billion (approximately USD 132 million) 100 MW green hydrogen facility at its Olkaria geothermal complex in Naivasha. Funded through concessional finance from the German government, the project marks Kenya’s first large-scale foray into renewable hydrogen, a zero-carbon […]
Bangladesh is poised to unlock $1.3 billion in June from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), covering both the fourth and fifth tranches of its $4.7 billion Extended Credit Facility. The long-delayed disbursement follows a staff-level agreement on key reforms—most critically, a shift toward a more flexible exchange-rate regime via a crawling peg mechanism, alongside an […]
South Africa’s labour market showed renewed stress in the first quarter of 2025, with the official unemployment rate climbing to 32.9 percent, up a full percentage point from 31.9 percent in Q4 2024. The unexpected rise—well above economists’ forecast of a 0.2 point uptick—underscores persistent structural challenges in what remains one of the world’s highest […]
A groundbreaking “Value of Air Transport” study recently unveiled by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has illuminated the profound and multifaceted economic impact of the aviation sector within Kenya. The comprehensive report reveals that in the year 2023, aviation facilitated a staggering Ksh 425 billion (equivalent to USD 3.3 billion) in economic activity across […]
President Donald Trump, during a high-profile appearance at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has announced his administration’s decision to lift the long-standing sanctions on Syria. This move, following the dramatic fall of the Assad regime in December of the previous year, marks a significant shift in US foreign policy and has sent […]
China has taken decisive action by suspending all imports of beef and related products from South Africa with immediate effect. This stringent measure follows the confirmation of ongoing and concerning outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in several key agricultural provinces within South Africa, namely Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal. The Red Meat Industry Services […]
Absa Bank Kenya Expands Institutional Service Offering with Custody Relaunch Absa Bank Kenya has officially announced the relaunch of its custody services within the Kenyan financial market, marking a significant expansion of its institutional service offerings. This strategic move positions Kenya as the third market in Absa’s portfolio to host this crucial business line, following […]
In a decisive move aimed at revitalizing and strategically bolstering its manufacturing sector, the Kenyan government has officially launched an extensive industrial mapping and geo-location exercise specifically targeting Nairobi County, the nation’s capital and a significant industrial hub. This ambitious initiative is designed to generate comprehensive and granular data on the county’s industrial landscape, which […]
Kenya’s monetary policy cycle has entered a defining phase. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has lowered its benchmark rate...
In a development that signals a deeper convergence between traditional finance and digital assets, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange...
When a nationalised bank in Maharashtra sold a life insurance policy to a 90-year-old man with an annual premium of...
Artificial intelligence has officially crossed a new threshold. For the first time, an AI system specifically AI voice agents can...
