Ghana hits Fitch for doubting its deficit-reduction plan

Ghana's finance ministry criticised the Fitch ratings agency on Thursday for saying a deficit-reduction plan outlined in last week's annual budget was not aggressive enough and risked missing its target. Ghana President    Fitch downgraded Ghana's sovereign rating on Oct. 17 to B from B+ over concern the country was not doing enough to tackle a budget deficit that surged to 11.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2012.    Ensuring...

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Asia Rice-Vietnam prices jump, Thai price widens on weaker baht

 Rice prices in Vietnam stand near their highest in nearly a year, fed by hopes the country could win contracts to supply 500,000 tonnes of the grain to the Philippines, while prices in Thailand have widened as political protests took a toll of its currency, traders said on Wednesday. A Rice plantation    If Vietnam wins Manila's rice tender, prices in Thailand could soften as its harvest gathers pace. But Vietnam's higher prices...

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Foreign holdings of Nigerian bonds surge nearly fivefold in a year

Foreign investors' holdings of Nigerian bonds swelled nearly fivefold to an estimated $5.4 billion in the year after the country's inclusion in a benchmark JP Morgan local currency bond index, according to figures obtained by Reuters. DMO director, Nwankwo    Africa's second-biggest economy joined JP Morgan's Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) on October 1 last year, becoming the second African country after South Africa...

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Ecobank in row over anonymous email, hacking allegations

 Pan-African lender Ecobank has sued a top executive who left the company this month, naming him in a civil complaint in Togo as the author of an anonymous email accusing Chief Executive Thierry Tanoh of mismanagement. Ecobank CEO, Tanoh    The executive, David Lawson, denied to Ecobank that he wrote the email and said he had been unfairly dismissed. He accused Ecobank executives including Tanoh of hacking his phone and email account...

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Nigerian inflation could fall to 5 pct by end of 2015-c.bank

Nigeria's central bank hopes to meet its longer term inflation target of 5 percent by the end of 2015, but remains concerned about a possible surge in fiscal spending ahead of elections that year, Deputy Governor Kingsley Moghalu said on Tuesday. CBN Governor, Sanusi    Inflation in Africa's top oil exporter is at a five-year low of 7.8 percent and the central bank recently lowered its inflation target for next year to between 6 and...

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Nigerian T-bill yields fall slightly

 Yields on Nigeria treasury bills fell marginally by around 0.15 percentage points across all tenors at a primary auction last week, where the central bank sold 99.93 billion naira ($630.04 million) worth of the debt with 3-month to one year maturities.    The central bank sold 20.64 billion naira in 91-day treasury bills at 10.7 percent, 15 basis points lower than the 10.89 percent it attracted at the previous auction on Nov. 6.    A total of 25 billion naira in the 182-day paper was sold at 11.45 percent against 11.60...

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Thailand offers generous terms on $2.4 bln rice bond

Thailand launched a 75 billion baht ($2.36 billion) bond on Monday that it needs to fund rice subsidies, offering generous terms as it tries to avoid adding fuel to protests in Bangkok.    The government needs the money to pay rice growers, a traditional bastion of support that is at risk as farmers have not been paid for their grain since the subsidy scheme was renewed at the start of October.    About 1,000 anti-government demonstrators forced their way into Thailand's Finance Ministry on Monday and protest leaders called...

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Nigerian growth quickens in Q3, oil output recovers

Nigeria's economic growth quickened to 6.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, while oil output in Africa's biggest producer recovered but remains well below capacity, statistics showed on Monday. Nigeria finmin, Okonjo-Iweala Africa's second largest economy grew faster than the 6.18 percent in the second quarter this year due to a strong performance in the agriculture, construction and telecommunication sectors, the national bureau of...

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South Africa's Nampak buys Nigerian packaging plants for $301 mln

South Africa's Nampak Ltd agreed on Monday to pay $301 million to buy a Nigerian beverage can manufacturer plus an option to purchase a plastic packaging facility. The acquisition of Alucan Investment Ltd forms part of the packaging firm's stated intention to boost sales from outside its home market. Nampak has said it aims to grow its sales contribution from the rest of Africa to 35 percent from about 20 percent now. Under the deal, Nampak has a 10-year option to buy related company involved in rigid plastic packaging in Nigeria, if and when the...

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Oil prices under threat from demand pressures in coming months: IEA

The global oil market is currently well supplied but growing demand pressures and ongoing disruptions in some OPEC producing countries could soon reverse a recent spate of softer oil prices, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.      In its latest monthly oil market report, the IEA also raised its estimates for world oil demand growth this year and warned that oil demand is poised for a seasonal increase in the coming months.      "For now global oil markets seem well supplied," the IEA said. "(But) if seasonal...

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Kenya cuts retail fuel prices for second month in a row

Kenya's energy regulator reduced retail fuel prices for petrol, diesel and kerosene for the second straight month on Thursday, a welcome respite for policymakers with inflation lying outside the government's preferred upper limit. Fuel station    Fuel prices have a significant impact on inflation in east Africa's biggest economy, where the economy depends heavily for diesel for transport, power generation and agriculture, while kerosene...

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South Africa's vehicle transport workers go on strike

South African vehicle transport workers have gone on strike to press for higher wages, a union official said on Thursday, in the latest blow to an industry still reeling from crippling  stoppages in August and September.    About 3,000 workers aligned to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) are demanding annual wage increases of 12 percent over a two year period but the industry is offering 10 percent for next year and 8 percent in 2015.    Vehicle transport workers move vehicles by road to ports...

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Nigeria's "bad-debt bank" AMCON posts 2012 after-tax loss of $5 bln

Nigeria's state-backed "bad bank" tasked with absorbing lenders' bad debts, AMCON, reported a 2012 loss of 822.9 billion naira after taxes on Wednesday, three years after it was formed in the aftermath of a financial crisis. AMCON boss, Chike-Obi It was a substantial improvement on the after-tax loss of 2.37 trillion naira that the Asset Management Company of Nigeria posted as of December 2011. But the loss was still equivalent to around a sixth...

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