Floating of Ethiopian currency sets off volatility as hotel menus warn of ‘new price for every meal at any moment’
Many supermarkets in Addis Ababa are hoarding products in warehouses and only selling small quantities in their stores to escape punishment by city authorities, who have vowed to crack down on hoarders. Consumers who want to buy in bulk must pay inflated prices for products they are told to pick from warehouses.
Kenya aviation workers set for strike over controversial government deal with Indian firm
The Kenya Aviation Workers Union said the proposed deal would lead to job losses and bring in non-Kenyan workers. It also described it an “unlawful intended sale of JKIA to Adani Airport Holdings of India” in its seven-day strike notice issued on Monday.
Youth protests and credit downgrades drive away risk-averse investors as Kenya’s debt, fiscal woes deepen
The latest debt sale, on August 1, saw the benchmark 1-year Treasury bill get less than a tenth of demand for the amount on offer. That weak demand is making it even more expensive – and complicated – to fund the debt-burdened government’s budget.
Why subsidies are fuelling protests around the world fragile African economies taking a hit
Across Africa – and a string of other emerging market nations – debt-laden governments trying to shed costly fuel subsidies are running headlong into angry populations reeling from years of increasing living costs.
Polish students, lecturer detained in Nigeria for allegedly displaying Russian flags during protests
The Polish foreign affairs ministry said on X that its officials in Nigeria are establishing “the exact circumstances” of the incident with Nigerian authorities. Thousands of mostly young Nigerians had poured onto the streets across the country to protest against the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation and against alleged bad governance that has stifled the country’s development despite being a top oil producer.
US businesses brace for digital financial markets as Trump talks says he plans to hoard billions in bitcoin
When former US president Donald Trump announced a plan to establish a national “bitcoin stockpile” if he is re-elected, the crowd at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, erupted into a fit of celebration. The frontrunner in the upcoming election was speaking their language. “For too long, the government...
Central bank boss shrugs off recent credit downgrades by financial market experts, forecasts Kenya shilling surge
Rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch downgraded Kenya’s sovereign ratings following the withdrawal of the tax measures, saying the move could complicate the East African country’s fiscal consolidation efforts.
Revenue starved Elon Musk’s X goes after advertisers over alleged ‘massive advertiser boycott’
In November 2023, about a year after Musk bought the company, a number of advertisers began fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Analysts: Turmoil in world market is a result of end of cheap funding, not hard and fast shifts in US economy
While Friday’s weaker-than-expected US jobs data was the catalyst for the market sell-off, with Japan’s blue-chip Nikkei index on Monday suffering its biggest one-day rout since the 1987 Black Monday selloff, the employment report alone wasn’t weak enough to be the main driver of such violent moves, they added.
World financial markets jittery as investors are jolted by US job cut reports as recession looms
A report on Friday showing hiring by US employers slowed last month by much more than expected followed weak reports on manufacturing and construction and stoked fears the US economy was finally bending under the pressure of high interest rates. Investors worldwide sold stocks and moved to the safety of bonds, pushing bond yields sharply lower.
